NickF

When ChunMei was scheduled for her interview I still hadn't filed my 2011 taxes because I hadn't received all of the necessary paperwork from one of my brokerage accounts. I ended up filing a day before her interview, and then faxed the completed return to her at her hotel in Guangzhou. She got it about 2 hours before her interview, but had no problems.

Just finished watching Part 4. About half way through he stops to take a picture at the place where we rented our bikes. Now I really want to go back! Hopefully next New Year.

Fun to watch because I again got to see a lot of places I'd seen before. Including the hotel where ChunMei and I stayed. And the McDonalds. We spend 4 days in Yangshuo during New year, and it was about the best vacation I ever had. Rented a couple of bikes, hired a local guide, and spent a couple of days touring the countryside. Spent another three days in Guilin, as well.

For us it's vitamins and dietary supplements, like fish oil capsules and calcium. But they must be US-made.

ChunMei's 10-year green card came in the mail last Saturday, and she's thrilled. And so am I. We'd filed in early October and she was complaining about filing so late (I was waiting for some copies of supporting documentation.) She wanted to have her card before New Year. I'd told her that that would probably not happen. In early November she went in for biometrics, and we heard nothing after that. So I had to listen to her constant grumbling about the long wait, and maybe it would take one year, and why didn't I call and ask why she didn't have it yet, etc, etc, etc... So about 10 days ago we got the letter saying she'd been approved. Of course the letter has the usual "will receive your new card on 30 to 60 days" disclaimer in it, so now she's grumbling about not getting it until April. So when the card showed up in Saturday's mail... Now all she talks about is how she is a lucky lady, and how she got her green card very quickly in only 4 months, and how all of her friends waited 6 months, and so on. Funny how quickly attitudes can change.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/04/inside-china-s-mistress-industrial-complex.html

Windows 7 creates that 32 MB partition only to store specific system files. Your actual C: drive is elsewhere in a larger partition. Don't mess with that 32 MB partition.

Interesting. It chooses Minneapolis/St. Paul, Madison, WI, and Rockford, IL as cities with the most similarity. I grew up in Indiana and Ohio, but have lived in Denver for the past 40 years.

ChunMei's been trying to teach me "Chinese" since before she came here, and I'm still failing miserably. The biggest part of the problem is that sometimes she's teaching me Mandarin ("Beijing language,") and sometimes "Hong Kong language" (Cantonese,) but doesn't tell me which one she's speaking at the time. So my vocabulary is a horrible mix of the two, and nobody can understand what I'm trying to say.

ChunMei is from Nanning, so we spend a lot of time traveling and sightseeing in Guangzi province. The area around Gulin and Yangshuo is my favorite.

I've also had problems in the past with "damaged" bills. Some Bank of China branches would refuse bills with even the smallest tear, and I had a couple of them rejected because "they are too old." I've begun asking my bank here in the USA to give me the best bills they have.

ChunMei says that because she lives in the USA she isn't eligible for any Chinese retirement. We need to confirm this, though.

Yesterday ChunMei took a drive to take pictures of the autumn foliage. After she took a few pictures on her camera her camera battery went dead, so she used mine to take more pictures. When we got home I transferred the pictures from my camera to one of my PC's, copied them to a flash drive, then copied them to her laptop as I usually do. At that point she mentioned that there were some older pictures on my hard drive that I hadn't copied to her's. I asked her what those were. she went upstairs and came down carrying a pair of her pants. She said, "You take the pictures when I wear these pants." Okaaaay. So we spent a half an hour going through folders on my hard drive, looking at pictures until we fond a series that had been taken on a road trip almost two years ago. And out of the 20 or so photos there was exactly one that showed her wearing those pants. She said, "Yes, those are pictures I don't have." So I copied them to her PC and she was happy. So tell me, is it just women who think like that? I can't remember what I wore yesterday, but she remembered what she was wearing 22 months ago! Couldn't remember where we were at the time, but remembered her wardrobe at the time. Amazing!

My wife, Leiqin, wants me to go with China with her for a couple of weeks at the end of this year. I tease her by saying that she just wants to have her white monkey with her to show off to everyone. In Nanning, us westerners are a bit of an oddity who are constantly stared at. I would suppose that there's a bit of a trophy husband thinking with my wife. Wonder what Randy and other expat's thoughts and experiences are. Interesting. I've not found that to be the case in Nanning, but maybe that's just me.

Well, ChunMei had the first of her dental surgeries three weeks ago. Three hours worth, with 3 extractions and bone grafts to her lower left periodontal arch to provide a foundation for the implants. Cost to this point, $10,980. After surgery she was just fine. Told me she didn't need the pain medication; she is a strong lady. That lasted about three hours. After the anesthetic wore off she was more than willing to take it. She went to bed and didn't get up until the following afternoon. So for the past three weeks she's been complaining about pain, pus at the surgical site, and of course everything is my fault. She developed an infection because she didn't want to take the antibiotics. Finally convinced her that she had to take them to cure the infection. She was supposed to have her post-surgical checkup this morning, and I had a helluva time convincing her to keep the appointment. She did not want to go back. I finally persuaded her that today they were only going to look and make sure everything was healing; that they weren't going to do any more work. She finally decided to go, but said she was never having any more dental work done. When they looked at her mouth this morning everything is healing just fine. Now she's decided she wants to have the remaining two extractions done ASAP, then get the posts for the implants done. I asked her if she was sure, and she said yes, she wants to have nice teeth now. I guess she's decided that the whole thing will be worth it.

Moon cakes. The Chinese equivalent of Christmas fruitcake here in the US.

Thanks to both of you.

In Nanning there are a bunch of them. And you can't hear them coming, either.

Well, in three days we can apply for removal of conditions, and we're getting the paperwork ready to send. There is one question I sort of need an answer to, though. Not specifically related to the I-751. When ChunMei last returned from China in June the immigration agent at LAX pointed out to her that her birth date on her green card didn't match the date on her passport. Her date of birth is 6-2-1963, and somehow on her green card they had entered it as 2-6-1963. She's been out of the country three times now, and this is the first time that anyone (including us) ever noticed it. ChunMei told the agent that in a couple of months we would be applying for the ROC, and the agent told her we could just wait until then and get it fixed on her 10 year green card. My question is, how do we do that? Do I include a separate page detailing the problem, or what? I'm sort of lost here.

There is a series by another author, and I can't remember the name of the main characters or the author now. Driving me nuts. It's a series about a Beijing police officer and an American woman forensic pathologist living in Bejing. If somebody else remembers this series please post it.

I try to take pictures of those sort of signs whenever I see them. My favorite was a sign in the shower in one of the Nanning hotesl that says, "Caution - Slippy." But these are a lot funnier that the ones I've gotten pictures of.

Discovered his most recent Chen novel at the local library a couple of months back, and have almost reading the entire series. They combine my love of detective fiction and my interest in China. Well worth reading!

Great news! Be happy together. Last Tuesday was our second anniversary, and we couldn't be happier. We wish the same to you.

In any case it's designed to carry assault helicopters. Lacks both catapults and a "ski-jump" aircraft launch ramp, so launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft would be problematic without a major refit.

Thanks. Yesterday was our second anniversary. Two great years together so far. I think I'll also include copies of the cards we exchanged, too.