Yunuen and I arrived in Bangkok yesterday after 22 hours. The city is amazing and as exotic as we had imagined. We are staying at a hotel called Chaophaya Park which is very nice. Prices here are insanely cheap and the food is absolutely incredible. We connected through Taipei so we had the opportunity to try some Taiwanese food and beer. Taiwanese beer is pretty horrid, but Thai beer is excellent!
It’s time for breakfast!
We had a meeting this morning with immigration as part of the final step in Yunuen’s acquisition of residency (ie, a green card). We prepared everything we were told to bring, including a lot of documents, photos, etc. and we were quite concerned we would forget something and consequentially not get approval. We arrived shortly before 9am, were seen right at 9am and were approved 7 minutes later. The process was painless and they really didn’t ask us anything. Needless to say, we are quite pleased. We will have to apply for permanent residency in 2 years and when approved, will then be able to apply for citizenship.
We leave for Thailand in a few days. I think we are prepared. We are very excited. We fly through LA to Taipei in Taiwan and then on to Bangkok. The trip will take about 22 hours, which is long, but then, less than the 26 hour drive to Michoacan.
I found a black widow in the garage today, so I took a photo. I’m really hoping it doesnt have babies running around. We should probably have someone come out and spray soon.
Not long ago when we were in San Carlos we stumbled across a really pretty tree, small, somewhat like a Mesquite with really nice flowers. There were pods, so I grabbed one to bring home and took out the seeds. I planted the seeds and now they are growing quite nicely. I think I may put one on the backyard. I gave Yunuen’s parents one to grow in their yard as well. Not sure if they will grow well here in the desert, but it’s worth a try.
Last week my sister gave me her digital SLR (canon) which I still get excited at everytime I look at it. It is absolutely awesome and will be an excellent item to take on our trip. I am hoping to obtain a 75-300mm lens prior to departure.
We had a nice weekend in San Carlos this holiday weekend. We went down after work on Friday with Dana, Matt, Christina, Aaron, and Liam. Yunuen’s brother Abraham and his girlfriend Khuy joined us on Saturday. The weather was pretty overcast most likely due to Hurricane John which was making it’s way up the Pacific coast. Fortunately it never entered the Sea of Cortez. Even so, we had huge waves to body surf and we did that a lot. The water temperature was incredibly warm, so it felt great being out in the water even when it was pouring. Liam and I had hoped to do some scuba diving this weekend, but the visibility was horrible due to the weather. We did see a lot of black dolphins in the bay. Saturday night we had carne asada and coronas and Sunday night we had some tasty pasta. It was a great weekend with the only disappointment being the 3.5 hour wait at the border upon our return!
Yunuen and I went to the range this morning with Ben, Lis, Aaron and Christina. We pay $6 each person every time we go so we really need to consider the $45 yearly family pass. I shot Ben’s .357 today which I like a great deal. The .44s are a bit much and the .22s are a bit light. I like his Glock .40 a good deal as well.
Our house is tiled throughout now and we really enjoy that. The floors look a great deal better. Yunuen’s uncle from California came out and we worked really hard to get that done in a couple days. I really don’t enjoy the process much. We purchased some trim for the base board as well that looks pretty sharp, so things will look much better when we get a chance to get that up.
We got out tickets to Thailand last week and we’re really excited about that. We leave December 9th. We plan to head to San Carlos Labor day weekend which is coming upon us. We have booked our condo on the beach and are heading down with a group of 8 people. I hope to get some scuba diving in this time and I am really looking forward to that.
We woke up early this morning to head out to the desert with Ben, Lis, and Liam to do some shooting. Ben brought most of his arsenal. For handguns he brought two .22s, two .40s (one was a glock), and a .44. He also brought a couple rifles; a .22 and a .44. Yunuen started with the .22 rifle and shot the silhouette animal (a chicken) on her first shot (and everyone after that I think). The rifle has a nice scope, so that was a good place for her to start. I tried both of his .40s today, a glock and a smith and wesson. I really preferred the glock as the grip on the smith and wesson was pretty short. Yunuen and I spent most of the morning shooting the .22 pistols which are my favorite for practicing to hit the targets. We had a lot of fun and Yunuen is very interested in getting guns of our own. We also saw a lot of these nasty giant black millipedes all over on the range. They were fairly quick and about 8 inches long, 3/4 inch in diameter. We didn’t attempt to pet them.
We got back just in time to head off to our meeting in the north of Tucson for our Thailand trip on October 9th. We plan on getting our tickets this week.
After that meeting we went tile shopping as we are tiling our house in 2 weeks. More precisely, Yunuen’s uncle is visiting and will be directing that project. We have found a number of types of tile that we like, but we’re undecided if we should go with the smaller 12×12 or the larger 18×18 size. We’re also hoping to add a tile mosaic near the front enterance as well as some other neat border pieces. Should things go really well, we may even have the opportunity to extend a wall in our kitchen which we’ve really wanted to do ever since we moved in. This would allow for a lot more cabinet space in the kitchen which we would really like to have.
Yunuen and I went out for Thai food last night at Bangkok Cafe with Dave and Viviani. The food was excellent and the atmosphere and service was much better than Char-Thai where we have been going out for Thai food in the past. As would be expected, they had Singha, which even Yunuen admits is good beer.
After dinner we strolled over to a Middle Eastern place and were happy to find that they sold Hookahs (Shisha). A Hookah is a Middle Eastern water pipe used to smoke fruitty tobacco. Yunuen had smoked one years ago in Switzerland and I had tried it not long ago with her at a Mediteranean place in Kansas City, so it’s a treat to have our own.
We went to see Mission Impossible 3 last night as well which we enjoyed. It’s pretty fast paced.
Yunuen made lasagna tonight from a recipe that my mom gave me. It was pretty good and so lunch tomorrow should be the highlite of the day. It rained hard tonight, which was deeply needed. Our backyard is solid yellow/brown now that the grass has died. It’s a tragedy, but without an underground sprinkling system, there’s really no way to keep it green. Now that the monsoon season is coming, perhaps it will revive. The garden is doing well. I planted a zucchini in the center which has now pretty much taken over most of the garden. It has grown quite rapidly and is doing better than most other plants. The tomatoes continue to produce, but I have blossom end rot disease and so many of the tomatoes are grotesque and unedible
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Yunuen and I went camping with Ben and Lis this weekend up Mt. Graham in the Coronado National Forest. It’s about 9000 feet above sea level, so the drastic change in temperature was a nice change. It’s been in the 100s for weeks now. It was in the 50s-70s on the trip, which we weren’t exactly prepared for. It was a little cold at night to say the least. We had a lot of fun hiking and sitting around the fire. We did really well with the food. Friday night we had salmon with rice and on Saturday we had steaks with sauted vegetables (squash, peppers, scallions, onions, zucchini). It was yumlicious. Carl, the camp ranger, was quick to warn us of the bobcats, black bears, and rattle snakes. We were attacked our first night by a mouse. I had my machete, so we were safe. Ben and I chopped wood with his new axe nearly sufficient to supply the entire campground. Chopping wood is fun.
We definately hope to return soon or find another equally tranquil location.
I love long weekends, especially hot and sunny ones. Dennis, my uncle from Vancouver was here last week for flight training, so we had the opportunity to eat together a few times. Yunuen made chile rellenos last night for dinner and we drank Pacificos. Yunuen’s parents came up today and they are all presently at Sam Levitz looking for new furniture for their new house. We just got a new couch this weekend which is a welcome addition to a rather sparse living room. We have yet to tile the place. Yunuen just called from the furniture store to advise she found a nice recliner to match our couch – but we’ll have to pick it up tomorrow as it appears her family found a new living room set. The lemon and guava trees are pretty much scorched from the heat. It’s not even summer yet and they are, for the most part, dead. The garden too seems to be having a tough time with the sun, so I constructed a covreing for it with a material that reduces the amount of light.
We’re planning a trip to Mexico to La Roca for lunch tomorrow with a number of friends from church. That should be fun. Not sure what the plans are tonight. Our shredder is shredded, so I am presently burning the stuff we would normally shred in the backyard in our old grill. Hopefully I won’t start the house on fire.
It’s a few days short of our first year wedding anniversary and the 100 plus temperature today reminds me of our wedding day when I was wearing my thick black suit in the 100 plus weather.
The photos at the bottom of a few of the ‘golden boy’ tomatoes I picked today. I found a little beast eating my lemon tree leaves the other day and some birds I saw in Mexico a few nights back.
