Kris-Jing

We've done bank wire transfers of this size in the past. No hassles, and no questions asked.

Got a notice in the mail today saying soon you will be getting your card. And another envelope, with the card in it. Seems like we should be hearing about EAD any time now, but nothing yet. No big deal, I have no plans for her to go to work anyway.

I had registered for email updates, and 2 emails came, one saying "Card production ordered", the other "Notice mailed welcoming the new permanent resident".

No interview. If we did have one I assume it would be San Antonio where we had the biomed appt.

Time to book a trip to go see mama and baba. B)

I have to keep telling her parents to keep their money, they keep trying to give it to me as they think it is just terrible that I in my thirties still have 10 years left on my mortgage.

Unless you are in some sort of apartment where you don't have an exclusive use area you can use to point your dish from, this is not true. No homeowners association AKA asshole association can prevent anyone from having a dish up to 1 meter in diameter. Don't let someone railroad you. FCC Fact Sheet I really don't know how anyone could stand to watch CCTV much, but CCTV 4 & 9, and several other Mandarin language channels, mostly from Taiwan, are available totally free, they are not encrypted at all, anyone with a free to air receiver and a dish of 30" minimum size can watch them.

I like the lotus ones. Really any of them aren't bad as long as there is no egg in the center, the eggs are freaking nasty.

She was almost dead last. got back to the hotel right at noon.

Once Jing finally got her turn today things couldn't have been easier. VO was an Asian guy, she said his English was pretty poor and she had a hard time understanding him. But like any proud Shanghainese girl, she wasn't going to switch to Mandarin. Turns out it was no big deal. He asked for her passport, she asked if he wanted mine also, he said sure and gave it a quick look. Then asked her for the I-134. She asked if he wanted the copies of my paychecks, employment letter, etc, he just said no, he didn't need any of that, and congrats, you pass. This whole process couldn't have been easier. Our circumstances are outside of what seems to be the norm here in a few ways, I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not, but it certainly couldn't have hurt. Now random things. Guangzhou is strange. I've never seen a city anywhere near that size with such a laid back slow pace. Very different from places like Shanghai. I saw lots of 6 lanes roads with no traffic on them, and couldn't help having thoughts like "where did all the people go?" The Grand Palace Hotel is a 2 star at best. At least the internet was free and we only stayed one night. We only paid 445RMB and I should have gone with my initial gut instinct of avoiding places like that. I didn't see anything in the vicinity of the consulate that provided quality accommodations other than the Westin. If I ever had to go back there that is where I would stay. We're now in Hong Kong, things sure are clean here, the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel is awesome, with service as good as any hotel I have stayed in anywhere. Off to the Ocean Park tomorrow. Rode a bus over here, that takes too long, so we will take a train back to pick up the visa on Thursday, then fly back to Shanghai.

I don't wear hats much, but as always I will have my boots on there. I always wear Ariats.

I have a reservation there in a couple of weeks. Everything was fine I take it?

Good stuff there, seen them get out and throw punches many times.

We'll be having our mooncakes later that day in HK, after Jing passes her interview. Surely they will be better than the ones I bought here last year, that egg in the middle of them was freaking nasty.

Got all the forms done over the phone on Sunday, got the physical done this morning, only took about an hour at the Shanghai hospital. She picks up the physical results next Monday, other than that we're ready to go, all tickets/hotels booked, etc. Just relax and wait now.

OK, Jing has P4 in hand now, they didn't actually mail it until Saturday.

Yeah, she sure is. Busy on the phone with her tonight trying to plan travel. Since we got a Tuesday interview, I'll go to ACH on Monday. Assuming pink, I think we will go over to HK during the 2 day wait for the visa since I've never been there. One other thing I was thinking of earlier, "sent" doesn't mean it has actually left the consulate yet. DOS told me the P3 was "sent" on June 23rd, but it was actually June 27th. The P3 only took 1 day in each direction via EMS, and Jing doesn't have the P4 yet, so I have to wonder if it has even left the building.

Rumor has it that they begin booking appointments at the end of the month, and work their way toward the first of the month. Then again, there are no rules with these people, half the time when you call DOS, what you are told is wrong anyway.

Interview on Sept 25th. 265 days from submission to interview. Not bad for going through CSC.

Wow, I checked the rates and it's WAY higher than I've paid for the Portman Ritz-Carlton or the JW Marriott in Shanghai! 3600RMB per night is the cheapest room!

I didn't try to use them both at once, since I was having my Vonage number ported over, I just waited for it to be switched, then swapped the equipment. It took about 3.5 weeks to get that done.

If you have the SPA2102-R1 router from iTalkBB and need the admin login so that you can get access to more configuration, the login/password is: admin 4825522 Was like pulling teeth getting this, I don't how many times I had to explain to them that it was going to be much easier for me to change the router config only, rather than my servers/switches/WAP/workstations.