Amy 10/13/09 Amy 10/13/09

We bought a house!

I am not going to tell you where or what it looks like because of all you stalkers and perverts out there. And if there's one thing I've learned from my mom about the internet, it's that it is full of perverts. So if I know you and love you, you will be getting an email with our address once we move in. As you know, I found searching for a house stressful. But I am learning that it is nothing to actually buying a house. And I can only assume buying a house is nothing compared to owning and maintaining a house! Why are we putting ourselves through this?! I shouldn't mislead you, though. I am more excited than nervous.

I'll keep you updated!

Amy 10/9/09 Amy 10/9/09

Fruit Tarts

This morning I made Fruit Tarts for a luncheon my mom is putting on. They came out beautifully (and so yummy!), thanks to The Pioneer Woman's recipe!

P.S. This post is going under the categories "truffles" and "unsweetened". Now you may think that these words don't apply to the above dessert, but if you read the definitions of my categories, all your confusion will be gone!

Amy 9/17/09 Amy 9/17/09

House Hunting is Hard.

My last several weeks have been all consumed with the house hunt. It has been tiring and endless. Although, if we weren't on a deadline, I might actually enjoy myself. But we are on a deadline so I'm just stressed. And what do I do when I'm stressed? I eat. And what do I eat? Chocolate. And what was the original point of this blog? The answer is here, but you should already know it! And so, to accomplish the original point of this blog, here I am writing a post on my frustrations instead of grabbing some M&Ms (which I'll probably do afterward anyway). The first house we put a bid on, we were very hopeful. It had been on the market for a while, was very beautiful, and was actually in our price range! But we soon discovered the owners had been somewhat dishonest. They had already accepted a bid and signed all the contracts a week or so earlier! And yet the listing was still active. This, as I have now learned, is a no-no in the real estate game.

The next house was a sweet little cape, and as much as I tried to keep my hopes from rising, they did anyway. But our bid was rejected and we found out later the same day that the owners received another bid and accepted it.

So here we are back at square one and feeling a little jaded. So why would I possibly enjoy myself if we weren't on a deadline? Other than the emotional ups-and-downs of the bid war, going into people's houses and examining every nook and cranny is kinda fun! It's amazing all you can learn about people from digging through their closets! (No, I don't dig around... I just look...)

Tomorrow we go out looking again. We are running out of neighboring towns to look in! But for now, I'm going to grab a handful of M&Ms.

Amy 8/27/09 Amy 8/27/09

My Dent

I had a massage recently, and the masseuse seemed to be quite uncertain about what I like to call my "dent" in my right thigh. Usually during massages, I comfort myself with the fact that these people have probably seen all kinds of bodies, so mine can't be much worse than the others. But I don't think she had ever before come across a mid-thigh dent. It got me thinking to what caused my dent and what a good story it would make for my blog. Let's begin by saying that 12 years old is too young for a boating license. So really, I blame the state of Connecticut for imposing this ridiculously lenient law. But I'm really not complaining. Aside from the occasional confusion of a masseuse, I rarely ever think of my dent. And I've had my boating license for 15 years now.

It was a sunny Saturday in mid-summer when my dad, cousin, and I attended the eight-hour long session that was (and still is) necessary to receive a boating license. Having passed the test at the end, we all were excited to drive my dad's brand-new jet ski down at the beach. But jet skis need motor oil, and when we realized ours' was nearly out of it, my dad put my cousin in charge (my cousin was a year older and never let me forget it) and left to buy some.

"Well, we have our boating licenses, so let's take this thing for a spin!" I don't know who made that fateful suggestion, but the other agreed to it! So my cousin hopped in the driver's seat, and I scooted up behind him and held on for dear life. He was driving so fast, with quick turns and the occasional 180 degree spin. I don't know if you've ever been on the back of a jet ski while someone else drove -and rather erratically at that! - but it's scary! So I closed my eyes to block it out and said nothing. After all, I could do anything a boy could do!

And then we stopped.

I opened my eyes and saw a huge sail boat motoring towards us. I don't know if my cousin thought the boat was stopping or if he thought he could beat it, but suddenly he hit the gas and we shot forward. Unfortunately, the boat didn't stop. And we didn't beat it. And that boat sailed right up onto my leg and sent me flying 20 feet off the jet ski.

I swam back to the jet ski. The owners of the boat reprimanded us, because we had been driving across the channel (a big no-no and something we had learned in our class earlier that day) and asked to see our boating licenses. We were humiliated and rather scared. We drove back to the beach, and while my cousin lamented the damage to the jet ski, I ran for my dad. When he found me, I was sobbing and limping, so of course he thought the worst. It was probably good for my cousin that he did expect the worst, because when he found my cousin safe and sound and saw the minor damage to the jet ski, he was only relieved.

Nearly my entire leg turned yellow, then black and blue, and swelled to nearly double its size. But the yellow, black and blue faded and the swelling receded. And all that was left was a dent. A dent the size of the bow of a huge sail boat.

Amy 8/21/09 Amy 8/21/09

Twitter is beating up my blog.

If you actually visit my blog (as opposed to reading it through your reader), you will know that I have started tweeting. And because of it, my blog has suffered. I really didn't think it would make a difference. But then I read an article (unfortunately, I cannot find it to link), the gist of which was that Twitter has made short, quick blog posts a thing of the past. I used to take a small idea, flesh it out a bit, and turn it into a whole blog post! But now I don't even have to put in all that work to get my idea out there.

For example, one of my Twitter posts yesterday was, "Pet peeve: someone correcting grammar in a library book...when it's in dialog!! Dialog doesn't have to be grammatically correct!!!" I could have turned this into a whole post about pet peeves or grammar or writing good dialog (which, I flatter myself, I do well). I probably could have even turned it into a series of posts on pet peeves or grammar or writing good dialog! For that matter, it could have become a new "Chocolate flavor" on pet peeves, or grammar, or writing good dialog.

But no, the lazy side of me enjoys Twitter for its simplicity and 140 character limit. And so soon after my 3-year bloggiversary (I don't think I coined that word), my blog suffers. I am committed to post here at least once a month, but for a while, I was posting several times a week! I'm afraid those days are gone. Perhaps they will resurface when I am back in a routine, but for now, look for me on Twitter. Or even just watch this blog for Twitter updates to the right.

Amy 8/14/09 Amy 8/14/09

Goodbye, Hyderabad

Today is my last day in Hyderabad, India. And while I am so excited to enter the next stage of my life back in the States, I will certainly miss some things about living here. So I want to take some time right now and remember some of my favorite things (a la The Sound of Music).

having my own bathroom (even though Ryan tried to poach it near the end)
bottled water delivered straight to our door for $2/50 liters.
days at the spa (for cheap!)
a wide variety of wonderful restaurants (for cheap!)
living here was something that made me interesting (am I revealing my inner insecurities?)
furniture made just how you like it (for relatively cheap!)
meeting people from all over the world
learning some Hindi (I hope I can continue learning!)
feeling like a celebrity (being stared at, people wanting my picture)
our beautiful, beautiful apartment (something I already miss, as we are staying in a hotel now)
our sweet driver (pic below with Ryan)

Of course, there are things I won't miss. But I prefer to remember the positives (in print, at least!). So goodbye, Hyderabad! It has been an amazing experience living here. I will always hold the city close to my heart.

Amy 7/23/09 Amy 7/23/09

Happy Anniversary to me...

...and my blog! July marks my three-year anniversary with my blog. This is quite an accomplishment for me. I start a lot of projects. Some of them I don't finish. OK, most of them I don't finish. But I've managed to keep this blog going for three years now, and to top it off, I have consistently posted at least once a month for nearly two years now. So I thought all this deserved a celebratory post. And here it is.

Yay me!

Amy 7/4/09 Amy 7/4/09

Happy Birthday, America!

Living abroad has made me appreciate so many things about my home country that I took for granted before (and probably will again). So today I thought it would be appropriate to list just a few of the things I'm thankful for with regard to my country. I am thankful for personal freedoms, that I can write what I want, even with regard to this country and its politics, that I can practice religion without fear of persecution. I am thankful for a free market and capitalism, which I truly do believe make everyone better off. I am thankful for convenience stores, which really are so convenient! To sell milk, light bulbs, and picture frames all in one store is a marvel! And I am thankful for diversity. What a blessing it is to be in one country (or state, or town, for that matter!) and be able to meet people of different backgrounds, cultures, races, and ethnicities. It is truly an enrichment of our country and our lives.

So Happy Birthday, America! This is not about politics or patriotism. This is simply realizing of what I should be thankful and an acknowledgment of that. I wish you many more birthdays to come.

Amy 7/2/09 Amy 7/2/09

Short excerpt from the book I'm reading.

"In an act of great tenderness, God visited Elijah in his time of despair [I Kings 19]. What happened next speaks volumes about what style works best when an omnipotent God decides to communicate with tiny human beings:

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

The gentle whisper, Elijah heard. God had accommodated himself to his prophet in a soft voice almost like silence."

-Philip Yancey Reaching for the Invisible God

Amy 7/1/09 Amy 7/1/09

Google Reader is so unforgiving.

Every time I write a blog post, I reread it several times (and often make changes) before publishing it. But it never fails that when I read it in my Reader (yes, I subscribe to my own blog), I find more things that I should have changed! So I make the changes to the post in the hopes that no one will see my error. But my hopes are not well-founded because I know that those of you who read this blog regularly, read it in your Reader. So if you ever see something that's incorrect or improper, perhaps you should check the post on the actual blog site just in case I noticed it too and made the change. And if I didn't, well, you can just leave it at that.

Amy 7/1/09 Amy 7/1/09

Culture Shock, final episode?

As our time living in India is drawing to a close (we will still technically live here for almost two more months, but much of that will be full of traveling and packing), I am realizing there is still a lot that I wanted to write about. So in case I don't get to the following in more detail, here is a list of things that we have come across during our time here:

The presence of the swastika. Since WWII, it is a symbol that we in the west relate to the Nazis, Hitler, and the persecution of the Jews, so it is rarely seen in the US. But here it is quite common to see it. In fact, one of the little jewelry bags that came with a set of my pearls has the swastika on it, and I'm not sure whether I will bring it back with me (yeah, I probably will)! The reason we see it so much here is probably because it is still used as a religious symbol to Hindus and Buddhists.
Islam prayer. Five times a day the Imam calls the faithful to prayer. It took some getting used to, but now when I do notice it, I find it rather melodic and, in a way, it really blends into the country.
The slowest washer/dryer ever. As someone who has never done their laundry outside the US before, it was shocking to find that our combination washer/dryer takes approximately 5 hours to do one load! And they are the tiniest loads ever. In fact, not once have I been caught up with laundry for the entire year that we have lived here (and it can't be because of my own laziness...)! Apparently, this is how it is in most countries outside the US. Thank you, America, for huge power-hungry washing machines (I'm serious.).
Whipping out the ween. That is my very cultured and proper way of saying that every time I go out, I see several men by the side of the road, peeing. And they don't even try to disguise what they are doing.
The quest for the perfect lightbulb. I can't even go into this because lightbulbs have become a very sensitive issue for us. We search and search for ones that will fit, that are the perfect brightness and color, but we have yet to be successful. Fortunately, a couple months into our time here, we discovered a place that sells just-ok lightbulbs. But the perfect one still evades us.

Amy 6/26/09 Amy 6/26/09

Random Project

I love having projects. And I love writing about my projects. In fact, I have a whole "Chocolate flavor" category on projects that I'm currently working on: unsweetened. At any given time, I am working on a quilt or two, in the middle of a knitted scarf, learning a language, working through a book list, and a bunch of random projects (at one point I even built my own doll house! I wish I had those pictures to share.). Yesterday's random project: designer sleep masks. We have a plethora of sleep masks, due to our many recent international flights. They are all plain blue, very boring. But since we have several more long international flights in the next couple months, I thought I needed to spruce them up a bit.

I sewed on the material, embroidered a couple flowers, then sewed on the beads (from some earrings I no longer wear), and voila! Perhaps I will make more, perhaps not (am I really going to wear this one on the plane, let alone a variety of them?). I'll probably just move on to the next project.

Amy 6/24/09 Amy 6/24/09

Why flies?

God in his wisdom made the flyAnd then forgot to tell us why.

-Ogden Nash

This little ditty has been going through my head for the past several weeks. We have frequent fly infestations here, the latest of which has take over Ryan's bathroom. They do seem to prefer our bathrooms in general (big mystery there) but particularly this bathroom because we have a pigeon's nest in our fan. A couple months into our stay here, we covered the fan with a plastic bag and sealed the edges. This was immensely helpful until they cleaned the outside of the building and all the nest (or at least all the excrement) was sprayed into that bathroom. We covered our faces in towels (for fear of bird flu, and of course, the smell) and disinfected it until it sparkled! But then came the flies. We turned on the bug spray plug, and this morning, here is what we found (enlarge pics for best* viewing):

Amy 6/22/09 Amy 6/22/09

Poor Gas Mileage?

Recent intelligence suggests that there is a place near Ryan's work that buys siphoned gas from cabs and private cars. We were warned to keep track of our gas mileage, because it has been discovered that several fellow ex-pats' drivers have been a part of this practice (and since have been fired). If only these clever-minded individuals would use their ingenuity for the good...

Amy 6/19/09 Amy 6/19/09

Weird Bugs

As many of my devoted readers will know, I have a huge fear of bugs. So it's one thing to be in the US and recognize the tiny enemies, but it's a whole new story to be in India and not know what species of danger you are facing. For example, I have seen bugs that look like an R's*, but are black with red markings. We also have brown flies that have the segmented body of an ant and are huge and gross (I guess gross should be implied when talking about bugs). But the bug from several weeks ago was the weirdest. When I first saw it, it was up near the ceiling and it had the shape of an R, so of course, I had to call in reinforcements. I do not deal with R's by myself, especially ones on the ceiling. I called Ryan to come spray it. He came and used our R spray, and the thing leaped from the wall and out towards him! Then, when it landed on the floor, it started to bounce! And every time it bounced, it made a popping sound!

Bounce *Pop* Scream!

(The screaming was me, not the bug.) It was bouncing about a foot in the air! Ryan kept spraying it and it kept bouncing and popping, and I kept screaming! Finally, with enough spray it stopped bouncing and died (my screams continued, however).

I have since wondered what type of bug it was, but I have a hard and fast rule that I do not search for bugs online because it would probably be much more information than I ever wanted to know about any bug. So here I sit, torn between wanting to know what danger I face, and not wanting to know at all. So far I've chosen ignorance.

*R's are, well, if I could say the word, I wouldn't call them "R's", so let's suffice it to say that they scurry in the dark. That's all, I cannot speak of them any more.

Amy 6/17/09 Amy 6/17/09

Don't move to India if you get motion sickness.

I just ate a wonderful meal and my stomach was happily full. Then I got into the back seat of our car, and happily full turns into angrily full. What with sitting in the back seat, manual transmission, and the quick stopping and starting of Indian traffic-honking cars, rickshaws, motorcycles, pedestrians, dogs, and cows, the once happily digesting food begins sloshing around until it's ready to come up again. So take this warning, do not move to India if you get motion sickness. You will love the food, you will want to indulge yourself in the many wonderful restaurants, but on your drive home, all the wonders of your previous meal will be forgotten.

Amy 6/14/09 Amy 6/14/09

Feel free to stare.

Upon first moving to Hyderabad, we noticed immediately the staring of the locals. It seems that our white skin is quite the novelty here. In the beginning it was very disconcerting. Remember this post from October?

Secondly, as white people, we get stared at, a lot. In fact, we were told before we came that people would even want to take our pictures, and would sometimes even try to do it sneakily without you knowing. Well, it’s one thing to be warned, and another to experience it for yourself!

Then we began to get used to it.

Then we began to stare ourselves. "Ryan, look! There's a white guy!" has become a phrase I have found myself muttering more than once. If I see a white person in a restaurant, I watch them enter, sit down, wonder where they are from, if they live here, what they are doing here. All this while I stare at them, open-mouthed before suddenly realizing I should look away. But spotting a non-Indian residents is really quite rare! Granted, there is a sizable ex-pat community, but you have to really know where to look. There are very few white people just walking down the street. Hence, I have to stare.

Amy 6/12/09 Amy 6/12/09

If I were on Twitter...

This is what the past couple days' twitterings would be:

11am Monday: Just got The Sims 3! I think I'll play for a couple minutes just to see what it's like!
12pm Monday: Still playing The Sims 3. It's fun!
3 pm Monday: Still playing.
11pm Monday: Still playing. Must get some sleep.
11am Tuesday: Good morning! I think I'm going to get some work done today! I played too much Sims 3 yesterday, so today will be a productive day.
11:05am Tuesday: Decided it couldn't hurt to play for an hour or two.
11pm Tuesday: WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?
11am Wednesday: Will definitely get work done today.
12pm Wednesday: Just did some dishes, now I can reward myself...
3pm Wednesday: Must. stop. playing. Will go do chores.
3:30pm Wednesday: Laundry in machine! Now I can say I was productive today! Off to play some Sims!
1am Thursday: Ryan is telling me to stop playing Sims and go to bed. But since when do I obey him?

Well, I think you get the picture, so I won't continue. It's really just more of the same. But today is a new day! Admittedly, it's already 4pm and I've been playing the Sims for the past 3 hours, but no more! Today I will make up for a wasted week!

7pm Friday: I guess I should go "make up for a wasted week" now...