Just realized.....

that we both get 3 paychecks in October. Woooooo hooooooo!

The VERY best of British

So, a friend on Facebook posted this link - a website dedicated to the differences between American English and English English. This had me laughing hysterically - because it's so, so true!

As they say in England, this website is the Dog's Bollocks (ie flipping brilliant).

http://www.effingpot.com/index.shtml

Check out this sky...

Tonight we had some bizarre cloud formations outside our apartment - check them out. I thought they were just awesome.

Is it the 21st century?

OMG - this article has me so mad. Clearly it's written by a man who has had his ego shattered. Does it REALLY matter in this day and age whether the woman or the man is the higher breadwinner?

To blame women's equality and education for the breakdown of families is ridiculous. While there are more single families out there, there are also more single parents who can operate independently - and all power to them. Is it ideal? Probably not. Does it work? Usually. Does it affect the kids? Yes.... but the question is would it affect them more negatively if the parents stayed together? I think that's a yes (although no expert I might add).

I'm fiercely independent (ask my parents...or my husband!!) and the thought of being blamed for a change in society is nuts. Mind you, I'm sure there's loads of people out there who would disagree with me.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1063792/Bridget-Jones-generation-blame-breakdown-family.html

Happy Monday!

Snack cupboard

I'm so excited - I have a snack cupboard. Ever since we lived here we haven't had one as we've not had the room. All our snacks have been stuffed in other cupboards and while it was OK, it would have been better if they'd all been together.

Something else that I wanted to fix this weekend was some of the kitchen cupboards needed sorting out. When we bought the new fridge it JUST fit - and what we didn't realize when we bought it was that the hinges on the fridge stop the doors of the cupboard above opening. Now, we didn't really have anything important in that cupboard, but I did want to move things around so I was only moving the fridge out once or twice a year. I also had some spare shelves in another cupboard after I'd moved stuff when we bought the furniture earlier in the year. As I moved stuff around I ended up with a spare cupboard. Yippee!! All my crappy snacks are in one place:)

I can't believe how excited I've been all day just because I managed to organize myself.....weird eh?

Biscuits and gravy

This is a meal that you'll find in any diner in the mid-west. I spent years wondering what on earth it was, then a few actually ordering it. For those in the UK, it's a scone smothered in a spicy white sauce that has sausage in it. Sounds awful, but it's great!

Today is the first time I made it myself. Was pretty fantastic even if I do say so myself!! Yum-O

I just wish you could easily find it here....

Article

Penny, your town and mine is in this list. Here's an article regarding the homes hardest hit by this financial crisis. Scary eh?

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/09/0925_crisis_towns/index.htm?campaign_id=yahoo

Car issues resolved - maybe

I may have struck gold with our car issues. It's been an ongoing problem since we had the car. It's in the shop, we have to take time off work to collect it, we wait around, they don't return the old car to Lexus, they don't pay us our old lease payment as promised etc etc etc.

Anyway I lost patience this week and emailed the owner - found his email on the dealership website (have to admit I didn't know it was the own until after), but this seemed to have a pleasing response as all of a sudden the people were responsive. The guy responded within a couple of hours, had agreed to meet me and said he'd fix our issues.

When I picked the car up yesterday I decided to stop by the dealership (the service department is a few blocks away) to see if I could get the check. Anyway, while it was a slimeball who was there I did come away with:

a) the check
b) a credit of $110 that we don't have to pay for the car tax
c) a credit of one month's car payments that I'll see on the bill
d) 3 coupons for free oil changes, no expiry

It was pretty pleasing because this guy was a total idiot. He tried to tell me he answers his voicemails - think of me looking at him and saying "well....Brian....I've called you 3 times in the last 2 days and you've not responded once". He definitely was uncomfortable dealing with all my complaints.

Anyway, I could go on, but suffice to say we may have turned a corner!

Feeling like an old lady

So today I picked up my orthotics.....doesn't that make you sound soooooo old? This is for my ankle. When I went a few weeks ago to see the doc he said this was something we should try before considering surgery. Now, I've already said it's not bad enough to have surgery, but it's not good enough to be like it was before.

So...for the next 3 weeks I have to wean myself into these things. I have to tell you they're like putting your feet on concrete. I have to wear them an hour a day, then 2 hours a day until in 2 weeks time I can wear them all the time. He seems to think it may make a difference. Who blinking knows....

Anyway, we'll see. I think I've found someone who knows a personal injury lawyer so we'll see. As long as it's no win no fee what do i have to lose?

Finally! A vacation!

It's been a long time coming. Between work commitments and new jobs we've not had a vacation since we went to Jamaica back in July last year. We've been talking about it a lot but also didn't want to spend a huge amount of money because of the drop in income and some medical bills we've had to foot the bill for. I looked around for some other Caribbean island wher we could have an all-inclusive deal (it's cheaper in the long run) but the prices were huge (2k each for a week...not including flight!). We just don't have that kind of money right now. So I contacted the Jamaica hotel we stayed at last year directly and asked for their best rate. $78 a night per person, all inclusive and it also includes transfer to the hotel and back from the airport. Brilliant!

We have a busy few months coming up but we've managed to get in a holiday - I'm so excited!

End Oct - Jenny and Frankie visit
Nov 7-17th - Tim visits
Nov 27-30th - Thanksgiving with Melissa and Merina (in Connecticut or New Jersey)
Dec 3-7 - Carrieanne and Rachel visit
Dec 13-20 - Off to Jamaica
Dec 22-30 - Peter visits

Phew! Hopefully I'll drop a few pounds in the process!

Crazy week

It's been a crazy old week. The financial markets have imploded and the world has gone crazy. As you can imagine work has been nuts. With the banks going bust it's eventually going to translate to job losses for us as the company's revenue will go down.

I'm relatively philosophical about it all - things always have a habit of crashing and then coming back up - it's just a matter of time. The credit crunch was just waiting to happen. I remember when we first moved to NY that finding out how much you could afford to borrow was an uphill struggle - we went to 3 different financial people and it was always "how much do you want to borrow?" not "you can afford x". We went round in circles because we wanted to know how much we could afford to borrow and no-one would tell us. In the end we found someone and they told us that we could borrow well over a million bucks. Knowing what our mortgage is now I shudder to think how we would ever have paid that back. I'm glad that we had what we had, even though it's still too much and we're on a budget.

I wish I understood the finer details - and I know it's affecting everything from my 401k to whether we'll be able to borrow in the future - at some point I'll figure it out. In the mean time I'll start learning the new financial market in which we operate along with all my colleagues.

In other news we went and saw the new George Clooney movie, Burn After Reading, which was pretty cool. I'm not sure Brad Pitt was convincing, but it was soooo bad it was great. Very funny if you want a chuckle. I also saw Charlie Wilson's War and that was pretty good too.

Just desserts

I seem to not have a lot of time to blog recently. One of the reasons is that I usually post first thing in the morning when I get to work - over the past few weeks I've had someone work for me, and she travels into work with my boss. This means she either arrives just after me, or on really bad days she is there first. It's kinda hard to blog when you're not alone:) There's also lots of moves going on right now so we are also sharing a desk. It'll get better this week I'm sure.


Anyway, I thought I'd post a story from this week. Trev's having a great time in his new job - after nearly two weeks he's settled and has his laptop and new phone (one of the fancy new Palm PDAs...very very nice). He's already making changes and he's like a pig in shit. It's great to see him finally happy in his job. We'll do OK with the drop in income, and he's taking it seriously - I just see small changes where he'll turn down an offer to eat out, buy Starbucks or get a massage. That's really nice...and I appreciate it.

Last March I bought Trev a half day driving session at Pocono raceway - I thought it'd be cool. It took a while to organize but originally we were going in June. Mum's surgery came through so we needed to postpone. Next we were going in August....and then I had a business trip. Then we booked for September, and I was supposed to go to Spain (even though it got canceled). For the final time we rescheduled for the end of October. Now, those who know Trev mean that while he tries to be understanding I did cop a lot of crap for the badly timed trips -and rightly so.

So......the other night I ask if he's OK while we're on the sofa....and he says "I'm plucking up courage" - now that sounded weird and for a few seconds I was perturbed. Then he said that he's been asked to go on a business trip at the end of October and once again we need to postpone the driving.

What a bummer eh? The other bummer thing is that Trev is now away for the whole time that Frankie and Jenny are visiting. That's even more of a bummer.

Now it wouldn't be fair if I said I was happy....but I think I laughed more than got annoyed and then asked "so, how much crap can I give you.....?" Anyway, we'll ge there eventually! It'll just be colder than we originally planned.

Will make you chuckle

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1057309/An-A-Z-woman-DOESNT-need.html

This had me howling......I think because it's so, so true.

I didn't make it to Spain....and I'm thankful that I'm home. I like being home, I've not been here enough this year.

Trev's enjoying his job, I'm enjoying b eing back at the gym full time, I still love my bike and am generally in a good mood.

More when I have time.

Remembering...

This is my first September 11th where I'm home and in the office in Manhattan for the day. Since I've lived here, I've always managed to be on holiday or a business trip or something - not planned, it's just the way it turned out.

Coming into the city this morning was surreal. There is an unspoken reverence here; people are going about their business as usual, but it seems quieter. Not as much chatting, some knowing glances and an overwhelming sense of honour and pride. I felt the same thing when I was in London the day after the 7/7 bombings a few years ago.

These days I'm definitely Amglish......I feel honour (or is that honor....!!) and pride for feeling both American and English all at the same time. I'll never lose my heritage, but I've come to love the country I call home right now.

How conservative or liberal are you?

Thanks Dory for this one...I guess I'm middle of the road:) No surprises there then!

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 35% Conservative, 65% Liberal Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

And so the fun begins...

It's voting season. Between now and November there's going to be a ridiculous amount of campaigning for both the Republican and Democrats to see who's gonna be the new president. Will it be the first black president or the first female vice president? Who knows....it's a nail biter. I don't vote in the US - I'm not allowed, so over the years I've always formed opinions. Is it really about politics and views? Or is it just personalities.....

This is not a post regarding one side or the other and I'm not planning on sharing my views either way. I definitely prefer UK politics. This US stuff goes on for years and years (or that's what it feels like). In the UK, the Prime Minister makes the decision on when the election will be; they can make that decision any time up to a 5 year period. Then there's only about a month's notice. Pretty cool eh? The rest of the time is spent complaining bitterly about whether it's the Conservative (ie Republican) or Labour (ie Democrat) party's fault.

I digress. The purpose of this post was to relay a story a colleague of mine told me this morning. She was at the bus stop and there was someone campaigning with a "vote for me" type thing going on. No idea what party BTW....it's just funny. Now....does this guy really really think that this question/statement would make you vote for him? She was standing in line for the bus and he said to her "you know, if you vote for me I can make the bus come more quickly". a) did he really think she was that shallow and b) is that really really possible?

Enough said. Bloody hilarious.

The one about the car and the fridge

I've not really mentioned ongoing issues we've been having with our refridgerator and car so figured it warranted a post all of its own, especially as between the two of them I'm eternally thankful I can work from home.

First the fridge, as this is the quicker of the stories. We bought the new washer, dryer and fridge back in May. Since then we must have had the engineer out between 6 and 8 times. This is our second fridge - the first one the water/ice dispenser didn't work at all. What happens is that the ice gets made and goes into the ice holder....but then what happens is that it melts. Over time the ice melts and refreezes so you end up with one big block of ice - and the dispenser doesn't turn. We have had a new motor, new ice maker bits, a new door. Today we had a new mother board. It's ridiculous - all the food has that icy fur on it tha tyou get when the door doesn't shut right....so I'm convinced I need a new one. I really hope this board works, but you can't help think if it does how much over time the poor thing has been doing and whether it'll last the distance. We'll see. The engineer has visited so much that I feel like he's moving in. that said, he's so helpful. We have also had issues with our washing machine. The last time we called service the guy said we were full of crap and it was a stabilization issue. As it happened today, the washing machine started to thump just as the engineer arrived:) He took a look and he's ordering new shocks, frame and something else. When the parts arrive I can book a service call for two guys. How helpful is that? I'm not sure I'd recommend GE Profile as we've had so many issues - but the service is fantastic. That alone is worth it (even though I'd rather not have met him in the first place!!).

Now onto the car. We've had this car about 6 weeks. It has 350 miles on the clock. We leased our car - they took our old one, said they'd pay our last month of lease. Since we took ownership of the car this is what's happened:

- the car has been in the shop for 2 problems every week except 1. The rear driver's window didn't work, now there's something wrong with the convertible part of the roof on the same side of the car
- they never paid our last month's lease. I paid it.
- they said I wouldn't have to pay a payment until September. They lied. I had to pay August (and given I paid the old one too....that was not funny)
- the manager has yelled at Trev and told him he didn't have to be helpful
- the financing was DEFINITELY dodgy

So, as always with purchases you get a survey to complete. Basically we've gone to town on it and it's now been escalated. The manager of the dealer won't return our calls or their calls. I got the woman to agree on Friday that we are due compensation. Right now we want them to take the damn thing away. While it's a very cool car, it's hardly practical. Think of it - when you go to IKEA you actually have to think about what you can fit in the car. With the last one we never ever had to think about things like that. Even with grocery shopping, if the roof is down (which it is almost all the time right now as it's so nice) there's only the back seat to put the bags.

This is taking up soooooo much time!

End of an era

Trev has worked for his company for 2.5 years - this pic is of him on his last day with his phone, PC, blackberry etc etc all boxed up and ready to go. Can you see the smile?

We've had a lovely extended weekend doing almost nothing - back to work tomorrow.

In other news, we've got everyone's tickets booked for this year to come and visit. Peter's coming over Christmas for a week. Rachel and Carrieanne are coming for a long weekend at the beginning of December. In addition to that Jenny and Frankie are visiting last week of October and Tim is coming for nearly 2 weeks mid November. Soooooo......we have to book a week's holiday for ourselves before the end of the year. As it looks like we're on our own for Thanksgiving we might pick that week....or, make it between the girls and Peter visiting. I know Mum and Dad are thinking of visiting too - not sure when we have time free....but we can always find time!

It's so exciting to have all these visitors. We've also invited some of my work colleagues round for dinner sometime in October... and I'm off to Spain next week. It's madness - it'll get quiet sometime in January I think.