To live and explore

The Taiwanese woman we met at the international cafe invited me to join the quilting class on Friday. The ladies are mostly the spouses of International students who study at the University in this small town. They meet regularly at a house near the university. Since the house is not within walking distance, I planned to take a commuter bus to go there.

However, T found out his father would be running errands in the morning and could give me a lift, so I didn’t get a chance to take the bus yet. These buses are not as big  or as comfortable as the JFK Airport Shuttle. But, the bus stop is right in front of our house and it’s pretty convenient to take a bus to go downtown or the university.

There were about eight of us there, three other Asian women are from Taiwan, China and Indonesia. The Indonesian woman was very happy to learn that an American woman and I can speak Indonesian/Malay. She wanted to teach us cooking some Indonesian dishes!

We spent time chatting and getting to know each other while our hands were busy with the quilting. Actually, we were doing the cheater quilt. We sew on the pre printed quilt instead of starting from fabric pieces.

It has been almost a month since we reunited. Things are going alright, though we do have to learn how to get along with one another again. There were a few crashes here and there on our pet peeves, which mainly have to do with his spending habit and my Internet habit.

I don’t like him spending so much money on his toys and collectibles, because I think we should save up money to buy a house. My habit of leaving the Internet on when I am not in front of the computer annoyed him. He would close all the pages that I left open on purpose. I got upset having to logon and open them again when I wanted to check on new opps for paid posts. I think it’s just him being paranoiac, never have problems with spyware, virus or keylogger even though I have been leaving the pages open for the last two years that I have been working online.

We got a pair of used washer and dryer for a steal but ended up have to resell the dryer due to it being a gas dryer and we have only electric hook up in the laundry room at the basement. It’s necessary to get a dryer as we won’t be able to dry the laundry on the lines when the weather turns cold.

They are many people in the opposite situation i.e. moved into a place that has gas hook up and try to get rid of the electric dryer. So, we have been looking at craiglist.com for a reliable ,less than two years old used electric dryer for a couple weeks. We did find some very good deals. But T was concerned about hauling it home and bring it down to the basement, and it’s not worth hurting our backs doing that.

We finally decided to get a new one from the store today, so we don’t have to worry about delivery and installation! We went to Sears to check out the GE dryer that we saw online. It was priced at about $750 on sears.com.(not including all the taxes and delivery charges, which will be about $100+)

But then we saw a LG dryer that in the same price range, has the same functions and a larger capacity, but was on clearance due to a scratch on the top of the dryer. We don’t mind the scratch as it ’s hardly visible and saving of $200 is a substantial amount of money for us who are just starting out.

So, we decided to buy the LG dryer instead. They are going to deliver the dryer on Tuesday morning and I am looking forward to clear the laundry piles.:-)

In this economy, the appliances and furniture stores are not doing that well, so if you shop around, you can really get some good bargains on discount furniture and appliances, especially if you pay cash!

We went down town to shop for warm clothes and household stuffs after dinner. We wanted to check out the dryers at Sears but it was closed when we reached there at 7.15 p.m. In this small town, most stores close at 9.00 p.m and some close at 7.00 p.m!

We first went to TJMax, a discounted store, it’s quite small, thus the selection is quite limited. Found a few trousers that I like, but could not find the “short” ones, the “normal” and “long” ones were too long for me. Bought a pair of jeans that has the “short” version and two pairs of tights. Also went to JCPenny, which’s just a few blocks away, bought half a dozen of warm socks and a pair of chenille gloves with the $10 coupon we got in the mail!

Then, we went to Target, bought some hand towels and wash clothes. These were on sale  for  $1.58 per pack, four wash cloths in one pack and two hand towel in one pack. They are not the plush and soft type, but I prefer the thinner ones, they are easier to dry and save on energy.

Though we do have enough hand towels and wash cloths, they are all in brown color and got mixed up a lot. So, we got them in two colors, beige for him and green for me, so they don’t get mixed!

We also checked out the clothes drying rack. We saw one selling for $29.99 on target.com, but it’s not available at the store. Drying racks are probably not very popular here as most people just dry their clothes in the dryer. We wanted a rack to hang the almost dry and some of the sweaters as dryer tends to shrink them.

Actually, this chrome metal drying rack is quite small and won’t be able to hold too many clothes., but it’s the better built one that we can find. We actually found one wooden drying rack almost the same size  of this metal one at the garage sale and paid $2 for it.

It’s quite light and was blew off from the balcony on second floor to the lawn few days ago!  Despite falling from 12 feet height, it’s still in tact and nothing is broken. It might look flimsy, but it’s surprisingly well built!!

In the last two years, in fact, in all those years as a bachelor, the big boy often just had some junk food, coffee or skipped the first two meals of the day totally! By dinner time, he would be so hurry, he would have eaten a horse, if it’s available!

A combination of heavy dinner at odd hours and  then late night snacks in front of TV. Are you even surprised he put on back the 30 pounds that he lost in the first two years of our marriage? Since he wanted to lose weight without Ephedrasil hardcore and stay healthy, we thought bring lunch to work might help.

As a start, we got a food container from Walmart, it’s not strictly a Bento box, just a plastic container that has two compartments.

The first day, I cooked a little extra during dinner and have the leftover Ginger Onion Chicken to go with the rice. Cut some celery and tomatoes for some extra fiber. It’s good that the big boy loves vegetables! He just put the vegetables on a plate and reheated the rice and Ginger Onion Chicken in a microwave.

The next day, there was no leftover from dinner because he cleaned up all the Steamed Asam Catfish we had for dinner. So, I made him two slices of Peanut Butter Sandwich with Blueberry Jam, egg rolls and  cut half an apple.

It went on well for the rest of the week except for one day he came back with the lunch unopened as he was too busy that day. It’s cold in the morning, my brain might be still trying to defrost, in a blur, forgot to take pictures of his lunches! I prepared most of the food at night, some days the lunches were all packed, he just have to take them out from the refrigerator and go.

I went on to purchase a Clickety Click three-tier Bento box from Ebay for about $7 including shipping.

Thought the yellow Monkey who says “My name is Mink, I like to read the fantasy story. I am very excited when I read” is so cute, though the big boy is not totally impressed with a monkey lunch box. He thought it’s for the little boys, not a big boy like him.:-)

My in laws are in their 60s. After battling with cancers and illnesses for the past 10 years, they decided to sell their house and moved into a retirement community. Though they still lead an active life, they could not cope with yard work and maintaining a house anymore.

Main building in the retirement community

The retirement center is built on 30 acres of scenic campus with park-like setting. There are two stocked fishing ponds, large community areas, ample parking for residence and guests, garage parking and 24-hour security. The landscaping, building and residence maintenance are contracted out to professionals. The center is run by full-time activity director and staffs who organize social and recreational activities. The other facilities include game Room, fitness center with personal trainer, library, computer resource center, craft and hobby room, wood working shop, resident Gardens.

It offers choices of apartments, duplexes, independent living, assisted living and  nursing home.

Apartment living

Duplexes

My in laws at first moved into a 3 bedroom apartment and stayed on the waiting list for  duplexes for two years. They later moved into a 2 bedroom duplex once it’s available.

The duplexes (what we called semi-D in Malaysia) are really nice, they range in size from 1,300 to 1,700 square feet. These professionally landscaped single-level brick homes feature two to three bedrooms, two baths, and include a fully equipped kitchen, an attached garage with opener, spacious sun room, and a full basement.

Fully equipped kitchen

Spacious and bright living space

Master bedroom with attached bathroom

All interior and exterior maintenance is done for them, the lawn is mowed for them. They offer flexible dining plan and served three meals daily at the cafeteria. They can bring guests and can also reserve private dining rooms for special events.

Parents in law usually have breakfast on their own, and if they do not feel like cooking lunch and dinner, they can order meals at the cafeteria and just drive or walk over to the cafeteria during designated time.

The food at the cafeteria is prepared by professional cook. My parents in law brought me there for brunch yesterday. They have good cook, I must say. The food not only delicious, they are prepared the healthy way too. The  retirement center is pretty well designed to ensure personal independence and quality of living. I really don’t mind living here when we retired in future.

Most of the people who live here are in their 70s and 80s, the oldest man lives here is 105 years old! He drove until recently he decided to surrender his driver licensse and gave his car to his grandson (who must be in his 60s!). Parents in law who are in their 60s are the youngest couples here!!

Only brought four pairs of shoes from home due to luggage space constraint. It’s getting cold here,  can’t wear the sandals and slippers.  I have been wearing the tennis shoes since arriving here. So, we dropped by Kohls on Saturday evening, wanted to get shoes that can be worn to church and work, or maybe also boots for the winter.

The shoes department at this Kohls was having a sales, though there was not much of a crowd there, the shoes were in quite a mess. The big boy got impatient after an hour of trying on many pairs of shoes. So, I shooed him to the demo massage chairs nearby, so he could have a good massage and I could shop in PEACE.

At the end, got myself a pair of slipped on Oxford shoes with leather upper and flexible outsole. The elastic inserts on both sides provide easy slip-on wear. The suede trim along the collar, mircosuede lining and cushioned footbed really make your feet stay comfortable. This patten comes with a wider version and that solved the problem of not able to find shoes that fit my unsually wider toes.

Casual Slip-On Oxford Shoes

Also got a pair of Suede Clog Slippers. The suede upper gives  an earthy look and the faux-fur lining and padded foot bed are very comfortable. I only realized they are slippers for men when we reached home. But, who cares as long as they are comfortable.:-)

Suede Clog Slippers

Both were on 40%-50% discount, we paid about $60 inlcuding taxes for both and received $10 voucer for  next purchase. Didn’t have time to look for winter boots as we have to rush off to meet my in laws for dinner. We most likely would come back here to continue the shopping next week.

Decided to purchase five new domains last week. It was a bulk purchase that comes with free privacy registrations. After using a discount coupon, paid only the full price of two domains when bought separately.

Since won’t be working outside the home temporarily, might as well make full use of the time to setup more blogs and work on some of the existing ones. Have also been checking out web hosting blog to look for the right hosting package.

I would need a multiple domains web hosting package because my plan is to host all five of the newly purchased domains with one hosting plan to save cost. I am looking for a hosting company who is reputable to have negligible downtime and is fast to recover from it. Jilted the last web host because they took too long to solve the overloading problems that my blogs were experiencing. The current one is doing good, but I would prefer not to put all the eggs in one basket.

Have been browsing the web for unbiased user reviews of the web hosting companies before purchasing a hosting plan. I have never paid full price for a hosting package, always look for discount coupons, promotional code before getting one!! In fact, I have gotten a few hosting packages for less than $10 in the past two years!

The big boy left for a toy show to trade his action figures and hot wheels 6.30 a.m. So, he had  arranged for his parents to pick me up for Church. His parents attend the United Methodist in the neighboring town, about 15 minutes drive from where we live. Most of their relatives i.e. uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and second cousins attend this church. However, we do not plan to attend this church, so today is just a visiting.

Oh boy, I have never seen a congregation with so many elderly people. It’s not that I have anything against elderly people, we were at the second service at 10 a.m. more than half of the people are older than parents in law, who are in their 60s! However, it’s encouraging to see some older people are continuing to serve in whatever capacity they can.

We went to the cafeteria the retirement community where parents in law live for Sunday brunch after church service. It’s a buffet on Sunday. They have wide selections of breakfast, sandwiches, salads, fish and chicken. I had some baked salmon, salad and a croissant sandwich, they were delicious. They must have a good cook at this retirement community!

Only brought four pairs of shoes from home due to luggage space constraint. It’s getting cold here, can’t wear the sandals and slippers. I have been wearing the tennis shoes since arriving here. So, we dropped by Kohls on Saturday evening, wanted to get shoes that can be worn to church and work, or maybe also boots for the winter.

The shoes department at this Kohls was having a sales, however except for a few people who were shopping for Halloween costume, the store was actually quite empty! The big boy got impatient after an hour of waiting while me trying on many pairs of shoes. So, I shooed him to the demo massage chairs nearby, so he could have a good massage and I could shop in PEACE.

At the end, got myself a pair of slipped on Oxford shoes with leather upper and flexible outsole. The elastic inserts on both sides provide easy slip-on wear. The suede trim along the collar, mircosuede lining and cushioned footbed really make your feet stay comfortable. This patten comes with a wider version and that solved the problem of not able to find shoes that fit my unsually wider toes.

Casual Slip-On Oxford Shoes

Also got a pair of Suede Clog Slippers. The suede upper gives an earthy look and the faux-fur lining and padded foot bed are very comfortable. I only realized they are slippers for men when we reached home. But, who cares as long as they are comfortable.:-)

Suede Clog Slippers

Both were on 40%-50% discount, we paid about $60 inlcuding taxes for both and received $10 voucer for next purchase. Didn’t have time to look for winter boots as we have to rush off to meet my in laws for dinner. We most likely would come back here to continue the shopping next week.