Tammy and tommy and kucing gendut's mini escapades

Life Dating & Relationships
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Fri, May 6 Rihanna: Anti World Tour 2016
Sun, May 8 Stars On Ice
Wed, May 11 Selena Gomez

We went last Wednesday night for Ellie Goulding’s concert. That venue is quite nice, but they sure have a strong aircon system and it seems to all come from top to bottom so your head gets cold. I should have brought Ear Plugs (which later I got from an usher) and worn a cap. As it was I got a splitting headache and had to endure near 4 hours of keeping my fingers in my ears. Why is it that at concerts they are so loud? Need not be that loud really.

Let’s hope the wife doesn’t want to go to upcoming Rhianna and Gomez concerts there. She gets more of out them then I do , due to age gap. I’d go if it was Santana or Fleetwood Mac.

Ellie put on a good show. 100 bucks per but we had seats this time and weren’t standing in front of the stage. Audience was thrilled. Should have gone at 930pm when she got on for her 90 min set and missed the opening acts though, more time to hang around San Jose downtown and less time in the cold ice rink.

We were there from 7pm. When they had Bebe Rexha open with 3 or 4 songs, I forget. Shes notable as a song writer, working with a few big names. She cowrote or wrote “The Monster” , a big hit for Rhianna/Eminem. Her gig was pretty good. Then came Broods, which was highly forgettable, sorry.

SAP center is mainly an ice rink, and while its a nice facility , has very strong aircon (keeps the ice …ice I guess).

So wear a cap, cuz the air be blowin down COLD.

And bring good ear plugs ! Essential if you want to keep your hearing. And it actually makes the music sound better too.

The SAP center is right in downtown San Jose, so free parking after six pm is available if you hunt for it. And there are restaurants around to gobble down some grub before going into the center. There are food outlets in the center itself too of course, but with jacked up prices as usual and limited selections.

Traffic on 280 heading down to San Jose in the late afternoon is like driving in LA, it is SOLID. Jammed.

Coming back late at night was a breeze . We got back to the east bay in good time.

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Did a infopass appointment recently to clarify something. Infopass is an appointment at the Immi office in downtown SF. Same building where they do interviews, but a separate section. It’s where some immi officers can offer suggestions and answer questions. It’s rather informal, in that they don’t make any decisions on your case or anything, just offer advice.

Was reading conflicting reports online about whether you can travel abroad once your 2 year green card has expired but you have already applied for the ten year green card and gotten the one year extension. Some said you can’t travel with just this extension letter, you have to get a stamp in your passport, some said you don’t need this stamp.

So took a day off work and had a buddy drive us (parking around there can be a bitch) and we got over there. Went through a short security line. Said you can’t bring your cellfone, but you can, just can’t take it out to use it. Shut it off and keep it in your pockets. They frown on cameras and fones in there.

Funny thing was, there was a lady at the reception desk, who asks what your inquiry is and then she gets you a number to wait for an immi officer. But our question was simply answered with a “no, no stamp needed, you are ok to return on your one year extension paper, just bring that with you”.
So in and out in minutes.

My bud circled off to get lunch on me in Portrero Hill, a nice fish and chips place on 18th , near the nice cafe there FARLEYS (which if i am not wrong was used in a scene from the movie SWEET NOVEMBER) a 15 minute drive. So we had a sammy at the nearby Specialties ( a nice chain sammy store, with great sammys and soups and salads and yummy pastries).

So thats it folks, no need to get a stamp in your passport while waiting for the ten year green card even if you travel abroad.

Booked her flight back home for late next month. Strangely SFO prices are about 500 higher then leaving from LAX on SQ in that time frame. And EVA and others are not really cheaper. She could go with Emirates for hundreds less but thats a long way routing through Dubai . But not being a seasoned traveller she is wary of taking a different route then the one she is used to. Can’t blame her.

So got her a Virgin America flight from SFO down to LAX. And they interline so she can check her bags all the way through on SQ. Cool. And she gets to try out the A380 (which i have not been on either). On the day she wanted to travel to LAX from sFO> The Virgin ticket plus 50 for two pieces of luggage and 25 for a better seat turned out to be only 20 bucks less then First Class. So she gets to start her journey with a short First Class flight. NOt bad.

First gets you two free bags and is already a great seat (one of 4 only on the A320). Good deal. And there is food ! And Wine too (which I would certainly help myself to).

Ended up paying near exactly the same as her last two trips on SQ, even with the flight out to LAX on Virgin.
Ticket pricing varies widely. Ranging from summer highs of about 1600 down to winter lows of about 1000, sometimes as low as 900. EVA and SQ and Ci seem to be similarly priced for the most part. SQ she gets half miles , but for some reason she is getting full miles from LAX. Must be some sort of promotion. Weird that flying from SFO and back to SFO would have cost 1600 but flying out from LAX but returning to SFO costs 400 less? And even taking into account the 200 on Virgin for the one way F class still comes out 200 less! And she gets full miles for her frequent traveller. That is worth something later. I forget how many flights you need but there is a free one there eventually.

That makes Emirates quite aggressive currently offering a round trip SFO to JKT and back (by way of Dubai) for about 900! Aggressive. But I think its a longer routing. I would have taken that routing (but i would want to stay a few days in Dubai !). But she’s more comfortable going the routing shes done prior.

Shes going to be in Indo this year for Ramadan because she cant drink even water until about 845pm here (due to day light savings) while in Indo its something like 2 hours earlier. IMportant if you can’t even drink water.

Actually toyed around with this very new service from Concord Airport. A small biz jet / small plane airport near us.
They have just started using a 30 seater Embraer 135 jet (think its refurbished with new interiors). They ordered ten and just got the first one. They currently fly a small fleet of 4 seater Phenom 100s for charter. So this looks like a cool deal ! Fly on a biz jet from Concord to Burbank (only place they go besides Las Vegas) for bout 110.

Thought she could take this but then she would have to do a 7am flight (next one at 4pm is too late in the day) and have to take Uber from Burbank to LAX, which at some 35 miles or so would cost around 50 bucks.

Extra hassle, but she was pretty game on trying it. I said try it next time you are going to LA with buds.

jetsuite.com/locations/netje … re/Concord

It sounds awesome. Pull up to the small bizjet terminal. No long lines , no long security checks etc. Board your flight with only 29 other passengers . And fly in style (equivalent to biz class) down to Burbank in a bit over an hour !

Good deal for around 110 dollar !! Its bout 280 or so to Vegas, which is about the same as Virgin and Southwest usually charges. But Virgin sometimes have super cheap deals though on this run.

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What, your wife is a Muslim??! Weird you never mentioned that before!

Does she still do her five prayers a day?

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Indonesians are largely Muslim like Americans are largely Christian like Taiwanese are largely Buddhist.

But there are various degrees of devotion. She’s about as Muslim as most Americans are Christian

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I figured your wife was probably Catholic or Christian Indo-Chinese…she does look kind of Chinese. That said, it seems like a lot of Indonesians are “Ramadan Muslims.” I had a beer with plenty of Muslims when I was in Indonesia. :sunglasses: In any case, I assume you’re not looking forward to a Trump presidency…

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She doesn’t claim to be but I think she’s ethnically at least part Chinese. She mostly hangs around with other Indo Chinese. But she comes from a part of Indonesia settled eons ago by Chinese, but one where Muslim is the dominant religion. Put her on EVA air and the stews speak to her in Mando (which she can’t understand a word of). Throw her in Taipei and nobody would think she was not Taiwanese :slight_smile:

Yeah she’s nominally Muslim, by virtue of her upbringing. Just like most Americans go to Church (at least sometimes) and are nominally Christian.

I don’t support Trump because unlike Hilary , who is simply after more money, having gotten into the govt gravy train decades ago, Trump wants the Presidency to feed his insatiable EGO.

That puts him into the same category as people like Hitler. And that is not a good thing.

AS I have said, Trump will win the GOP nomination. And luckily be defeated by Clinton, who will be our first female Prez.

I’m not liking Clinton per se. But it’s a case of the devil we know versus one we don’t. Frankly I don’t like the whole bunch of them in the running right now.

Sanders is simply too old. And probably nuts.

Again on the subject of religion, you can understand if we don’t talk bout that in our house. BEcause I am Christian while my SO is Muslim. I am certainly not fasting during Ramadan.

I have changed a few things though, like I no longer eat Pork. At first it was out of respect to my wife. But since stopping eating pork I have come to not like the taste. Sometimes though I will pick pork at Chipotle (they only have chicken or spicy beef, which I usually pick, or steak, which is kinda chewy as it is not the best cut , and pork) because they do a good job of it. But by and large I have given up pork. Maybe I will slip in a piece of bacon at times with breakfast out. And i think i still miss a nice pork chop. But she said pork has a particular taste, I never knew pork had a taste, but shes right. It does have a particular taste, and now that I have come to think of it, I don’t really like the taste of pork.

If she was devoutly Muslim, it would probably be harder for me to jel with her. Prayers toward Mecca six times a day, wearing a hijab, etc. I get all the jokes bout Muslims from people I know at work , even my best friends.

They all joked a few years ago like , “tell her not to pack any pressure cookers in her luggage” , etc.

We need to recognize that there are people who are not of the Christian faith on Earth. But most of them are not fanatics out to kill us. Although there are fanatics who are Muslims, but there are fanatics who are of other religions or are without religion.

The Catholic/ Prostestant “troubles” in Ireland. Nothing about that was about religion. Neither side was truly “Christian”.

On a lighter note. THE JUNGLE BOOK was pretty good. Saw it last night. Then slipped in to see another feature that started at the right time. The BAtman Versus Superman movie.

What a piece of shit of a movie that one was. Lordy. That movie was a convoluted piece of shit.
A lot of this and that going on. I fell asleep in part (because it was getting late) and it made no sense.

It was trying to combine many movies into one. It had a stupid monster that looked like it could belong in the middle earth movies. It had a senseless Batman. Stupid Superman. Senseless and stupid aliens ala some other alien type movies, sort of like ID4. It has some sort of time travellers, which I left at near the end of the movie and didn’t figure out what those time travellers had to do with the story. It was trying to be abstract like that stupid Divergent series . Had a little bit of Star Wars with a bat plane doing Star Wars combat things.

It was a jumbled mess. NIghtmare of a stupid ass movie. Sorry fans. But it sucked. I am only glad I didnt pay 12 bucks each to see that one.

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Had a bit of a scare the other day when at work. My cell rings, its a call from tammy’s phone.

" Hello? Are you tommy? My name is Jackie (not her real name) ,I am her friend, tammy has passed out and they are taking her to the Emergency at Kaiser. I will follow her to the hospital Emergency."

“Wait what? What happened?” " Is she ok? Can I speak to her?"
“She’s awake now but you can’t speak to her, they closed the door to the ambulance and are taking her now” “She was able to give me the code to her fone so I can call you, please come to Kaiser immediately, I wait for you there”

“Ok, which hospital ? (Kaiser has many around here, and I didn’t even know what town she was in)”
“Kaiser” “Kaiser!!”
"What city? "
“Kaiser” (her friend was stressed, understandably)
“Walnut creek”
“OK”

Dashed out of the office, not knowing what the heck has happened here ! Drove faster then the speed limit I would guess.

Only found out five mins before arrival at the hospital the situ. She got a few coupons to a nice fitness center and invited her classsmate . They did 40 mins treadmill then went into the jacuzzi. Her bud felt uncomfortable as the jacuzzi was hot. She left after only five mins. Tammy stayed in for over 30. And then after the jacuzzi she sat on a couch with a towel and fainted. Still passed out after 15 minutes so they called 911.

After a few hours in ER with some tests and all . Doc said unusual situ but she looks to be ok. Suggested not using the jacuzzi if very hot and after a serious workout

Lucky for medical insurance, the last time she was in ER for a check up for suspected appendicitis the bill was bout 6500 dollars IIRC (paid largely by insurance thank God).

Good thing shes ok. And her bud was a huge help. She kept the towel on her as best as she could, gathered up all her belongings and came to the hospital, waited around with me till we could go see her. A good friend she is ! Tammy owes her a nice lunch. She still has some coupons to the same health club but I think they should avoid the jacuzzi next time !! Jackie said five dudes showed up with the ambulance and she was a bit shy too as she was in her skimpy bikini and trying best to keep the towel on tammy who didn’t have a stitch on. That was a call the ambulance guys can chuckle about no doubt. They did an awesome job though. American ambulance response teams get the patient stabilized as best as they can before transporting to hospital or while transporting. She had vitals checked and an IV strung up already. Taiwanese ambulances (not sure if that is still the case) just get the patient to the hospital poste haste and let the ER there handle. To Taiwan’s credit, hospital ER moves VERY FAST to attend to patients upon arrival. Probably faster then US teams (because US teams will have called in as to the severity of the situ though and the response will be according).

I wonder if it would be a good thing for the cell to work to call people on the saved phone list? If she was not awake enough to give out her code, her bud would not have been able to call me.

That would be a good thing, if a phone could be locked but could not only receive calls, which it can, but also have access to the phone list of people in your phone?

Or only solution is to put on the locked screen. “please call (phone number) in emergency”

A locked fone can call 911 but so far thats it i think.

Watch that exercise routine guys and over-use of sauna or jacuzzi. Even young people can pass out.

I can stay only bout 5 mins in a sauna, but a jacuzzi i can hang a long time if not too hot !

Still though the limit probably should be 30 mins tops? And one is not supposed to be highly active when getting out either.

Especially if your blood pressure is on the low side usually. Passing out is a real possibility. And the worry can be hitting your head while you are on your way down.

Lucky for her she was sitting on a couch and just keeled over side ways, hitting nothing.

That was the first time her classmate Jackie hung out with Tammy. Hope she’s still keen on other hang outs? Its great for Tammy to have more buds here.

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Singapore Airlines was pretty true to their word. When we booked, she had sectors on the A380 (LAX to TYO , and on to SIN) that we could only find a middle seat. Called the airline up and they said they will guarantee her a window seat (as far front as possible as is her preference) on check in. We can then drop the booked seats so someone else could take them.

And that is what they did. She got a nice window seat right past premium economy, right in the middle of the aircraft so that was nice. Myself I prefer a window seat in front of or behind the wing so I can see something.

Funny thing, although Virgin America supposedly “interlines” with SQ we were NOT able to check her bags through to Bali. IN fact we were not able to check in for her SQ flight at all. This was the SFO to LAX leg on Virgin.

Things have changed now that we don’t use paper tickets anymore I guess. Or they have changed, period. Back in the day when I was travelling, it was pretty easy to have your bags checked onwards, if you have a ticket from the next destination onwards to final. And they can see your reservation in the system.

In other words, from days of old, she would have been able to get to the Virgin Counter and have her bags checked through to destination Bali, when the agent can see her reservation online. She may ask for the ticket to make sure. She won’t “check in” the part with the other airline but I though i remember being able to get bags to final.

I guess with all these new security arrangements and all that, that things have indeed changed.

And we paid more for Virgin thinking because of their interline we could check bags through? Could have flown Southwest for 100 bucks less.

Lucky the Virgin America arrival is right next to SQ counter at LAX. But she had to go get her two pieces of luggage and bring it over to check them in. Extra step.

She enjoyed the A380. I’d like to fly them too before they go extinct. They don’t seem to have a lot of new orders and MAS is getting rid of theirs. Many airlines don’t want to operate one.

She’s now in Bali meeting up with her buds, having a simple and simply nice time. Your’s truly stuck behind working of course.

Enjoying the freedom of lazing about if I please when I am at home. Cat’s flat on his back at my feet asleep. Hot as heck out side (love it though). Time to do some chores, or should I take a dip in our super cold pool? Scratch the pool Our community pool is only usable when its like 100 degrees out, its not quite comfortable otherwise.

Never been to Bali, but I dont really “get” Bali. Sure, its the Hawaii of Indonesia but I’d just go to Hawaii. Its a lot closer . Bali seems “ok” But there sure are a lot of people that like to visit.

What say you? Whats your fav places in Bali, Maybe I can pass on a tip or two to tammy.

Edit: Well shes liking her little hotel by the beach. Got its own beach and infinity pool. Cept her and all her indo buds are just sitting around in the shade. Only white people go sit in the sun and go to the ocean and actually swim she says . And that is why tons of white people from europe go there, to bali. Not as many norte americanos. Probably tons of aussies, although aussies got plenty of places to go in oz already but Bali is a cheapish trip for a lot of em, apparently.

Closest I ever got to Bali was Surabaya, an hours flight away or something.

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That’s strange about the bag checking thing, flown from the UK to Asia about 4-5 return trips now, sometimes stopping in 2 places on the way and always had bags checked through to the destination!

And generally using the cheapo airlines lol.

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I went to Amed in Bali (with Loretta, actually. :smiley: ). It was pretty nice for a beach for in SE Asia which I find about as interesting as watching paint dry as a general rule. So yeah, watched some paint dry, snorkelled in some pretty decimated reefy-type sea, ate the bad tourist food, got sun-burned, etc. It was quiet, which I liked. I actually have family in Denpasar (dead uncle’s mid-life crisis third family kids) and I can’t stand it there: boring, noisy, poor and depressing.

Yeah about the phone thing. My boyfriend had a heart attack and I had to wait until he was conscious and out of surgery to call his family. It was shit because they were refusing to operate because there was no-one to sign the ‘he might die on the table’ waiver. In the end they let his fucking nanny sign it. They let me pay for it, obviously.

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What? Nanny? How old (err young) is your boyfriend :stuck_out_tongue:

U aint robbin the cradle like I am is you ?

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[quote=“tommy525”]What? Nanny? How old (err young) is your boyfriend :stuck_out_tongue:

U aint robbin the cradle like I am is you ?[/quote]

Ha, no. He’s the same age as me. Um … 21x2. :smiley:

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[quote=“Ermintrude”][quote=“tommy525”]What? Nanny? How old (err young) is your boyfriend :stuck_out_tongue:

U aint robbin the cradle like I am is you ?[/quote]

Ha, no. He’s the same age as me. Um … 21x2. :smiley:[/quote]

:slight_smile: Well you IS kinda the age you think you is , kinda sorta insane but kinda sorta true. I am definitely mentally younger then my body age (yeah yeah, slow developer…lol)

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Whew thank God for insurance. The bill for the short ambulance ride was near 2900 US dollars ! And the short check up and observation in Emergency was just a hair over 3500 bucks too. That’s over six grand for fainting and having the doc take a few blood tests !! No wonder health care in the US is a “sick” baby.

With insurance I had to pay 50 for the emergency room and I think 25 dollars for the ambulance ride. Just think without?

With his mommie home in Indonesia for home visit, its just me and the bear. And he prefers to hang around outside all day:

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So if anyone doesn’t know that I am cheap? I am cheap! Wifey blew her savings early and had to reschedule coming home two weeks early. That meant she couldn’t get back to SFO as planned due to there not being any cheap seats left. Luckily she could fly to LAX on the A380 for just a fifty buck change fee. So we did that. I was going to stick her on Southwest for the LAX to SFO hour long flight for 160 bucks. But then I thought she’s never been outside of LAX and she would be tired and have to get her stuff out of the international terminal and walk all the way round to the other side to the terminal Southwest uses and all that. And besides i have not driven down to LA TWO car ownerships ago! Something like over 12 years. So i thought why not drive down?

So i got me bud to go with me . Two drivers, 7 hours drive down and 7 hours back with quick breaks several times each way. 800 miles in one day. Was quite a drive !. I-5 is boring as hell. Straight two lanes each side. Slow lane basically hogged by trucks in an endless row. Speed must be kept under 80 lest Smokey gets ya for speeding.

And then the 405 to LAX is just a frickin nightmare !

She is FLYING BACK next time.

Shes tired of long distance flying now too after 3 trips back in 3 years. She said, hey I will not go back for four years but i want to fly biz class !! Which is four times more expensive.

I would like to fly the A380 before the thing goes extinct too. Not a lot of chances to fly one.

Still waiting for the ten year green card . I think nobody’s looked at her file yet. Just like the fiance application. Took ten months before someone actually even read her file !

After she gets her ten year greenie, I think i may post on this thread only when we have some REAL adventures at least of some note ! Like some cool trips to hawaii or las vegas or something. Doing vegas in October. Hawaii? Depends if i win a trip or something.

276

Keep these adventures coming Tommy - all of your stories are an interesting read!

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Ok, just for you and the other three (possibly) readers of my posts :slight_smile:

Little update on Vaccination and Vets in Ahmerica.

Getting tired of seeing one of the most expensive vets around these parts. Good service and all but whopper of a bill.
Gendut’s doc for the last three years always charged around 380 dollars for a check up and annual shots for the little guy. And then he charged another 700 or more for getting his teeth cleaned and some taken out (poor little guy).

So this year, I decided to take Gendut to the local SPCA for his shots. This was where I always took Smudgey.

Smudgey never did cost me too much money. In Taiwan the vets were really very reasonable . But they are NOT reasonable in the USA. Absolutely NOT so.

I think I spent maybe 2000nt a year on Smudgey’s shots at his Taiwan vet , and includes a check up. I think also a blood test or two. In the USA, as he was always very healthy cept when he was dying that I never spent much money on vet bills. Cost 500 to have him cremated and his ashes buried in a pet cemetery in Napa. Where Tommy my other cat was also buried. Tommy and Smudgey came to Ahmerica with me in 99.

Here I think its anywhere from 200 bucks and up for a couple of blood tests , a quick look over and annual shots. Depending on the vet.

And I don’t recall needing annual booster shots even.

So a lot of people who have pets here get their shots from the weekend clinics at the local pet stores. I think they are very reasonable, something like 50 bucks or something.

IF the pet needs a physical with blood tests, you have to go to a vet and get fleeced.

Smudgey got the SPCA treatment the ten years he lived in the USA. And I don’t even recall going there annually? I don’t really think he needed shots annually even?

So , long story short. The local Martinez SPCA has a nice little clinic here. Used to be drop in daily except Sunday. Now the clinic is by appointment and only on Saturday. So wifey took him in last Saturday . It was all very easy and fast.

Funny thing was , for some reason they seem to want to get a lot of personal details about you first? I called up and they asked if i was a local resident (probably the local SPCA only provides shots for local cats and dogs?). She looked up my info and talked about Smudgey and all that and then i was IN. Appt set up. And now Whopper has a file with them too.

Was only 55 bucks ! Rabies shot and some sort of combi shot was less then 20 bucks and the rest was made up of inserting a microchip into Gendut. Now i have to go to some website to register and I think theres a fee, will post later how much. And the shots are good for three years. Don’t need an annual booster at all. I had seemed to remember not needing annual boosters. I guess they only boosted the vets income.

This way the little rascal if ever lost and turned into an SPCA can be returned to us as they will call us.

Dogs have to be chipped and licensed in California. Forget how much, maybe something like 30 bucks a year or some such. It’s optional for Cats.

Always good to have your pet microchipped though because if they do get lost and taken to an animal rescue center they could get reunited with you.

The chip is like a kernel of rice in size and they put it between the shoulder or something like that. A bit painful inserting but otherwise should be fine. Smudgey had one even though he was strickly indoors. Whopper Gendut is also strickly indoors but he does slip out now and then.

278

Glad to hear Whooper will get a chip. The law was amended recently in Taiwan. It used to be only dogs were obligatory to have a chip/be registred. Now all pets, including cats, must have a chip/registered, or else you get a fine.

My pets got special cremation/burials so it was very expensive. Blood tests can be well over 2000 ntd now. Vaccinations and chip should be about 3000 ntd. There are cheaper services but that SPCA rate is really sweet. Now mine are very old and they are basically at the vet weekly, so I spend a lot on them.

279

Tiburon is a great little afternoon waiting to happen.

Couldn’t believe I never took Tammy to Tiburon ! It’s a quaint little town well worth a visit . Especially if you were doing Mt. Tam and its surrounding areas.

Which all in all is a great day out for Bay Area residents.
Mt. Tam is well worth it. A winding drive up near the top (think its ten bucks now for parking) and a short five to ten mins walk up to the Ranger station (tower) up there.

When doing Mt. Tam its awesome to head down to Stinson beach and dip your toes in to feel the water, which is possibly colder then the ice water in your fridge. Good thing anyways because apparently Great Whites sometimes cruise around just offshore there.

And you can have a cup of coffee in Sausalito before heading up the Marin Headlands with its spectacular view of the GG bridge. There is even a little cove with a nice beach great for surfers (forget the name of the beach).

Tammy and I haven’t done Mt Tam yet. She thinks its much the same as Mt. Diablo. Very much NOT SO. The view is entirely different I protested. We will get there eventually.

Now back to Tiburon. I used to venture over there once or twice a year, walk around a little bit in the small downtown area. There is a small dock for boats. Fantastic views abound ! Nice little cafes and restaurants around too.

And this nice ice cream shop with burgers. I used to hit that place every time i went.

Yesterday, did the same. And possibly that may be the last time as the place is going away. A big block of condos coming up there! Condos are taking over the bay area. From SF to Oakland and points north. Things are changing in the 3 years since I had last been there.

They sold Three Twins ice cream from Petaluma. Good stuff. Expensive though. A “single” cone, which is really two scoops cost five buckeronies.

Parking is a bit of a bitch. There is a parking lot . Three bucks an hour.

Anyhoos. We walked around in the warm autumn sun. Headed over to the nice Japanese restaurant a few doors down from the Waters Edge (seems like a really nice quaint hotel we have to try) Hotel.

Chicken Karage was not bad. The hand rolled California was good. The fried calamari was notable. The Agedashi tofu was beautifully created but the sauce was not to our liking sadly. I preferred the sauce to be a light soy sauce with the slices of wood fish found elsewhere.

The whole downtown is very small. You roll one way and you get to this little alley with the hotel and the restaurants/bars alongside it. And the parking lot right there.

On the edge of the parking lot is a nice little movie house. We went there and saw Snowden. The theatre doesn’t give free parking so we had to find a spot . Reasonably priced ticket at 10.50 though. Snowden. So is he a hero or what?
But we already know the govt can and does keep all our emails/chats/fone logs, etc right?

Just before watching Snowden, saw this little wine tasting place. Run by Couloir Wines, at 72 Main Street. A 14 dollar tasting which we shared (plonked down a twenty and that took care of that with tips). This got us a selection from their Straight Line wines . The Couloir line is Pinot only. Will try that next time.

We went for the '15 Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Barbara county, which Tammy liked . Only 162 cases produced , $29/bottle. The '15 Chardonnay from Marin county. 73 cases produced , $37 /bottle. Which she thought was a bit sour (it was fine by me, dry because high alcohol content of 14.1 pct IIRC). Finished up by '10 Tempranillo from simply “California”. 550 cases produced, $44/bottle.

Apparently tempranillo is a grape common in Spain and now being introduced to CAlifornia.

Thought it quite nice myself. Herself thought “blaah” . But that is probably because she hasn’t graduated to reds yet.

We are not wine snobs mind you, but just tasting bits and pieces where we can and trying to learn a thing or two.

As one self confessed expert said to me, “if you like it, its a good wine, if you don’t , you don’t and its a bad wine…and there you have it”. Wine 101

Meantime, am working on TAmmy’s ten year green card, which we hope to get soon and this will end this long long ass struggle with all the gaw dang paperwork involved when you don’t marry someone who has US citizenship !

I will NEVER do it again !! :slight_smile:

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Finally, after so much tribulation we have just been notified that Tammy is getting her 10 year Green Card. Which is the “real” one. The 2 year one was just a temporary not worth the card it’s printed on after it expires.

The 10 year “real” one does NOT expire. Even after ten years, you can still walk over and get another one.

Now she is going to apply for citizenship.

Great news. I feel relieved. IT has been a monumental struggle every step of the way !

First we had the hassle getting her visa approved because she only had one name on her passport “Tammy” and that’s it.

That set off a security check, which could have taken years. No time limit. The CIA, FBI , the Nuclear NOnproliferation society and what knows what else had to clear her. And this was after the interview at the embassy went well.

Then it was after the interview for the first green card here in SF, we couldn’t get it because my Taiwan divorce document was not “stamped” with an official stamp.

The related party in Taiwan refused to stamp either my original or their original. Because a stamp was “not needed” for the TW govt and stamping it would be “tampering with official documents”. Finally a compromise was reached and they stamped a copy of the original. And this “originally stamped” copy was ok with the US govt to serve as official notice my divorce was genuine (from first marriage) Whew. Burahcrazy at its best.

Then it was after 8 months of waiting for news about the ten year green card, we get a “insufficent evidence your marriage is genuine”.
So I had to put her name on everything . Thought I didn’t need to as California has Joint ownership . Means your wife owns everything you own even if her name is not on it.

So finally that worked. Double Whew.

IF not approved she will have to leave and i will have to get lawyers involved. She will miss the cat ! EVen more then she will miss me.

She said we will have to move to Indonesia. Which I really am not all that keen to do.

It has been a nerve wracking thing all the way.

MY advice to you. Marry someone with your own citizenship.
Save the hassle.

Taiwanese probably have a lot of hassles marrying a PRC citizen too.