Batmaniac

Good news! Thanks for the update!!

Very similar to our experience there. I wonder . . . did you submit any pictures or financial statements with your I-485? I threw in wedding photos (nothing fancy, just the JoP stuff that's in my thread) and 3 pages printed out from my bank's website showing we had three shared accounts. Oh and congrats! It feels so good, huh? B)

It's been on my Netflix queue for a while now. Should bump it to the top.

Interesting report! Always like reading these. Congratulations!

What if it was this version of Pride And Prejudice? That might really confuse some of our wives! http://theotheradamford.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/ppz.jpg This fall, Ying placed out of most of the ESL classes and is in two advanced classes. Their lit book is basically a smaller version of my High School Junior Year Lit Book with stories by Edgar Allen Poe, Eudora Welty and others. There is also a supplemental lit book with short stories by immigrant American writers like Amy Tan. She is also responsible for writing journals on the stories. Pride and Prejudice would be a bit much. I remember hating all that type of stuff in HS. Tess of the D'urbervilles especially . . . "Don't ever take any class that makes you read Beowulf!" - Woody Allen in Annie Hall

Best of luck! I am absolutely certain you guys will be fine.

Anyone use Yelp.com? Looking through the user reviews, I've managed to find several "authentic" Chinese restaurants that pleased my wife. Our favorite is this guy who has a tiny noodle restaurant in a run down strip mall. There's maybe 10 items on the menu, but it's so damn good. He even does shaved noodles! But Yelp is also good for introducing her to new Western style food. I showed her what great reviews Frank a (hot dog/sausage bar) was getting and she agreed to go even though she said in the past she hates hot dogs. She ended up having "the jackalope" which is antelope and rabbit sausage, huckleberry compote, Sriracha aioli, and applewood chedder. She talked about how incredible it was all day!

My wife was sleeping on a 2 inch thick queen size memory foam topper that was on a pretty nice queen size wooden bed frame when I met her. When I arrived for the second visit she went downstairs to a store, buys a bed, has it delivered and puts the memory foam on top of it. She then tells me the memory foam was 10 times the price of the mattress! When the springs started popping out of the mattress and poking me at night, I didn't find it hard top believe at all. Anyway Robert you can probably just send her the money and she could find something she liked at any store My in-laws sleep in a bed with the bamboo mat on top. They say it keeps them cool in the summer.

Pizza is hit or miss with Ying these days. We ate it about once a week in China. In Shenzhen, her mama caught me eating cold leftover Papa Johns pizza for breakfast one morning and I got a Mama Mop Slap big time! While scolding me in Chinese, she was literally pulling me towards the toaster over! For Ying's breakfast she generally likes cereal with milk I heat for her in the microwave. A little fruit is also typical. On weekends, pancakes or waffles are always welcome. Breakfast tacos are a big hit too. I would go to two different Shenzhen import stores to get the ingredients.

Syringe attacks? Freaky. Scary. Weird. Remember back in the 90s people rumormongering that drug addicts were putting HIV needles in the seats at movies or in the change return on pay phones?

Just installed and I got a whopping 14GB freed up on my 500GB iMac! Went from 40GB left to 54GB!

Taking English from non-native speakers could get her into some bad habits and bad pronunciations. Who does this school employ? My wife had English classes from high school on. She majored in Business English in college. I think she may have had 2 teachers during that time who were native speakers. Her spoken English is great (some bad pronunciation) and she gets complimented often, but the writing and reading are not as strong. She is currently in two advanced level ESOL classes at community college. It's tough for her but it's what she placed into. Her literature book looks like it's out of 11th grade high school. Lots of Edgar Allen Poe and Eudora Welty. It took me back. So I'd go with a tutor, native if possible. Get the basics in. Don't worry about everything. When she arrives you are going to be defining and explaining many words you never even thought you would. If you want her to succeed with English, you'll need to get her into ESOL classes in the US from native speakers. And hopefully you live in district of a community college and you don't have to plunk down $1000 for 6 credit hours.

I wouldn't want to leave my comfort zone (or cat if I had one) and go live somewhere for school either. She's not a college aged student anymore. 38 right? That's my age. My wife had to live in dorm rooms from middle school through college. There were as many as 10 girls in a room at once. Beds stacked 3 high. No privacy. Is this the same sort of deal? What does that 6000 RMB get you? Can't be fancy digs. If it's anything like the dorms my wife lived in while at school, you don't want Hui there. Trust me. She quit her job right? Can she get it back and do the private teacher thing?

Been through there a couple of times now from China. That's cutting it close. Last year I saw a new riot in line at LAX customs consisting of people trying to catch a flight to SFO. It got ugly. A gentleman who had an uncanny resemblance to the late Kurt Vonnegut was nearly arrested. But yeah she will have to pick up her bags after going through the customs line. Then she drops them off with some baggage handlers after leaving customs but before going on to her next flight. They know where it goes, but it might not seem that way with the countless bags she might see piled up. Her tags will say SFO on them, which is what they mean by checked through I guess.

Nice to hear!!

We moved from Dallas to Austin after we received the AOS appointment notice. Not a great distance obviously. We went on vacation then just drove into Dallas to keep the appointment. The friendly IO said she'd go ahead with the interview and notes on the case. The caveat was she'd have to send everything to Austin and we'd possibly need to re-interview there. She said the policy is you interview where you live. Now the second interview didn't happen. Maybe because we were in the same state. And we got the the green card a couple of weeks later. Don't know if you will have trouble with this or not.

I could easily chalk it up to just lazy police work.

Interesting story. I wonder what the protocol for something like this would be if he wanted to bring his real parents to the US. Is that even possible?

How much space did it free up on your HD? Mine should be here Monday. I pre-ordered the family-pack at Amazon a couple of months ago and somehow got it for 43.99.

That would be a fun area to work, Dan. Dangerous for me. My wife was in exports. She did pretty well for a 24 year old after commissions every month. Her base salary was 5000 RMB a month at the exporting picture frames. It wasn't uncommon for her to take in 10-12K a month. Personally I am glad she left the job when she did. The owner was moving the office workers to a factory where they would work AND live out in the countryside. By Summer of '08 the owner could no longer pay his workers or fill orders. I find the work and factory culture in China fascinating. I am about halfway through Poorly Made In China currently. Interesting book.

that's the genius of the deterrent!

Or how about a non-food product! I saw something the other day about some gates that have been installed in alleyways in Manchester. On top of the gate is an oily black substance that keeps people from getting over them easily. You ever seen that over there?

I find this rather ironic since butter isn't often used in cooking or at meals in China. Maybe they used the butter that was out of date and left over on store shelves? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/article....p;in_page_id=64

Love hearing about the pinks! Congrats! And interesting about questioning your other trips.

Congratulations on the pink!