Great news and random topics!!

OK, first of all the good news....I have already emailed everyone (I hope!) and told them, but here it is again......I got an email yesterday telling me that the first part of my greencard is approved!! I am nearly an American....bahahahahahaaaaa (I hope not!).....

So I am waiting on the letter so I can send the rest of my stuff in....good times! That's the best early Xmas present ever!! hehe

The temperatures have dropped drastically lately, especially at night. I got up this morning, and I will admit that I am not an early riser, and it was minus 2 Celsius, or about 29 Fahrenheit. And there was a fly frozen to the window....quite the sight!

In other great news the house is almost done!! In the past week or so they have put in the wood floors, oh...and the new big cabinets!! It seems that us complaining so loudly had some effect!! Now we have the gigantic cupboards! They are really great. And the counter tops/benches are down, the sinks and taps/faucets are in. All the lights, except one in our bathroom, are in. Outside they have put in a couple of trees in the front of the house, and some little garden bits with shrubberies. It all looks fantastic! The only things left are the bathroom mirrors, the carpet, the kitchen island, and some touch ups. It's almost a month until we move in, and I guess I should start packing boxes here....hhhmmmmmmm.

On the topic of strange news, I got a bill for $707 the other day. It's for all my Xrays and CT scans. Not cheap. Apparently they got Chris' social security number wrong, so all of my insurance was denied. Nice. I had to call Tricare (military insurance), and the Xray company (who put me on hold for a loooooooooooong time) to sort things out. Fingers crossed that that is the end of it!

Aaaand, I just checked the mail and I am adding this in....I got the whole bill today...same problem, wrong social, and not covered -please pay!! It's for $4,831.....WOWZA!! Fingers and toes and all limbs crossed please!!

I learned something new the other day, while watching the food network on TV. They were cooking something called "Chard". I thought it was rhubarb, with the big green leaves and red stalks, but it seemed silly putting it in that recipe. So I googled it, and it's silverbeet, cousin of rhubarb! hehehe. I had never seen silverbeet with red stalks, and now I am going to hunt it down at the supermarket....it has been too long silverbeet!!!!!!

There was an ad/commercial on TV last week for the UK Music Hall of Fame something or other. What I was most struck by was who they honoured this year....Bon Jovi. Really?? Are you sure you don't want someone from the UK?? Why an American group, who used to be almost metal/heavy rock and are now a little bit country? The presenters included many other Americans, and the performers as well. Something is seriously wrong here. I haven't been living in NZ for quite a while, but surely at the NZ Music Awards only kiwis win, and perform, and are honoured.....

Last weekend we went to the Byron Christmas Parade. And wow! It was 38 minutes long (Chris graciously timed), and it was.....interesting. We saw every emergency vehicle from Byron (quite a lot for a small place), every church had something (that's a lot of churches), every person of consequence from Byron (cough...all 5...cough), any car older than 50 years old, the middle school and high school bands, the middle school dance team sitting down, a Denny's float (please read the sign in the picture -very funny), 30 dogs and 15 horses. It was great.

What really got me was the throwing of candy/lollies. Everyone was throwing it at us. Well, maybe not us, I guess it was for the kids, but there was so much of it! And I nearly got hit in the head a few times by excellent throwing arms. The kids standing on either side of us kept darting in front of me just as I was bending down to pick up a candy cane, and would swoop in and pick it up when I was about 3cm away from it. Nice! Chris, Glen and Sarah were not impressed by my speed....heheheeh. Obviously the kids wanted it more. Charlie really enjoyed all the dogs walking past, he didn't bark, but his hackles were definitely up!

I have had a few comments about my translations in here, for example ads/commericals, and talking to my family the other day I got corrected for saying counters instead of benches (Si!!).

Let me state my case.....I know that kiwis understand when I say either thing, being familiar with American lingo from TV etc. But over here, if I don't use the American word noone understands what the hell I am saying!! So it's easier in most cases to use their word or be corrected 400 times. So Kiwis, please forgive me for using Americanisms, and Americans, sorry for the confusion!! hehehe Just consider this blog your American/Kiwi dictionary!! hehehe

Alrighty, I am putting quite a few pics on....including Taft-tastic decorations! (So you can judge for yourselves)....Happy Holiday season everyone!! xxxxxxx