Archives for May 2005

and I think I am going to announce the 27th of May my favorite day. Last year, I had the incredible opportunity to see Joe McIntyre live in Los Angeles and it was a fantastic night!
And this year, the 27th of May is a great day as well… I actually have two good news for today!

First of all… here it is… my “baby”

it arrived today! :) Jon called me at work right after it was delivered and I [who actually went to work an hour early today, so I could leave earlier in the afternoon :)] left pretty much right then. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get home!
Setting up the wireless internet connection and that stuff was pretty easy and now I am sitting here on the couch (!) with the notebook on my lap and can’t get myself to go to bed *lol* Nobody is online … too bad… so I guess I do have to go to bed eventually.

It’s still so unreal… it reminds me of Christmas, when I was younger. When I woke up on Christmas Day, I always wasn’t sure if my presents from last night would still be there and I would run downstairs to see if I hadn’t? had a dream. I guess, that’s what’s going to happen tomorrow morning… I will wake up, totally in panic, jump out of bed to see if the notebook is still there :)

The other good news is: Gerald told me today that they might have found a sponsor for me. As I probably explained earlier – the USGS is not allowed to hire me directly (as I am not a US-citizen), so they have to hire me through a contractor. He’s waiting to hear back from them, but it turns out that these people seem to have experience with hiring foreigners (which would be a great relief as they probably know a lot about the visa stuff, too!) I’ll keep you posted!

So, May 27th is a great day, don’t you think? And with a three day weekend ahead of us, I am totally happy :)
I hope you guys get some sunshine this weekend… if not, I am sending you some from over here, just in case ;)

OMG. Have you guys seen “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie”? (Sanni, I know you HAVE)… it’s so adorable! Netflix finally sent it and we watched it last night… and I loved it :) I just couldn’t stop commenting on how cute the Heffalump was… especially when it (?) laughed. And Jon really liked it, too, and said it had a really nice message… like that you shouldn’t have prejudices against people that are different and that fears can be overcome!And then… at the end… here it comes Sanni… Pooh was riding on the Heffalump! I think I need to explain that, because Sanni and I have been arguing for quite a while if there is a scene in the movie, where Pooh rides on the Heffalump. Jon and I had seen it in the trailer on TV, but Sanni said that there is no such scene in the movie.
As it turned out, it’s only at the end when they show the credits where you see Pooh standing up on the Heffalump to reach a bee-yard for the honey and then Pooh is riding backwards on the Heffalump and hide behind a little bush when the bees come after them :) It’s so adorable.

I have some other great news: They shipped our “baby”, the notebook, today *yay* which means that it could arrive any day now. I am so excited :)

Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed for me ;)

@Cathy: Thank you so much, hun, for your call last night. It was awesome to talk to you again :) and we can go on and on… *lol* Only 106 days to go… I can’t wait.

UPDATE 7:20pm: The delivery for the notebook is scheduled for tomorrow *wohoo*

I was channel-hopping on Monday night and came across “Fear Factor”… has anyone of you watched that before? (I don’t even know if they broadcast this show in Germany, but it’s basically the same as these shows that we have where you get a lot of money for doing really repugnant things.)
I am not a big fan of these shows anyways, but if people want to test their courage to make money… fine! They can sit in a basin of snakes or try to do something in a certain amount of time, but what I saw on “Fear Factor” literally almost made me puke.
There were teams of two people and the “game” was as follows:
On a table there was a big basin of bugs, worms, and other insects (which in itself is not so bad), but then one person had to take a mouthful (and I mean a mouthful!), spit the insects into a meat grinder, grind the insects and the other person was lying underneath this meat grinder, had to catch the grinded insects with the mouth and spit it into a bowl… and the team who had the most grinded insects collected in the bowl won!

Hello? Is this just me or isn’t that just disgusting?? I literally wanted to throw up…I mean, just imagine watching that! I am honestly shocked how far people go and that they show that on TV! When is enough enough??

No notebook news… :( the notebook is in “boxing status” since Monday morning, which just drives me insane. How long does it take to put it in a box? I hoped they would send it off earlier than expected, but I don’t think so… I guess I have to wait for at least another week *sigh* Am I impatient, or what?? ;)

Jon and I made great BLT’s and watched the Western Conference Playoffs Final last night and after that more Sex and the City *yay* that was fun! We also got -guess what?- the “Heffalump-movie” in the mail yesterday! It was too late to watch it, but we might watch it tonight :) (@ Sanni: I’ll let you know if Pooh rides on the Heffalump in our movie version :))

I hope some of you have a great holiday tomorrow, the rest of us… have a great day at work! ;)

this is a beautiful day. I actually might go for a swim tonight if the weather report is right and we’ll get over 90°F (=32°C). I don’t say that to make you guys jealous (although I hope you’re week started off with a little bit nicer weather as well), but just to make myself feel better about it being Monday again ;) Jon got home very early this morning. He called me at 6:55 a.m. that he’s on the way back to Sacramento and that he hadn’t slept at all! He went pretty much straight to bed, so I’ll hear all about Matt’s concert and his night tonight, I guess.

Then, some good news – I checked the online status of our notebook order this morning and it’s already in “boxing status” which means – if I assume correctly- that they might ship it before the estimated shipping date of May, 31^st :) I am actually hoping that they might send it out by tomorrow and it will get here by the weekend, but who knows if this is just wishful thinking. I am just really excited that the built-time ended up being a lot quicker than I thought ;) because on the website they said it’ll be 5 days, but it was only 2 :)

@ Cathy: I hope your foot is feeling better. You must have been in a lot of pain!

@ Ilka: I hope you feel better, honey. I know you had a rough weekend. I am here for you anytime!

@ Sanni: I hope you enjoy your evening with your new book ;)

ok girls, we had a slight change of plans on Friday and ended up NOT going to Ventura. Since Jon had plans for Sunday night in SF, we would have had to drive back Saturday night or Sunday morning (very early) and we figured that it would just not be worth it to drive 12 hours, if we only have 24 hours there. So we cancelled our plans and will go to Ventura to see Jon’s parents some time in June.
Friday night we picked up some pasta from an authentic Italian Delicatessen shop and went home to watch the NBA Playoffs Seattle Suns vs. Dallas Mavericks. Seattle was up 3:2, so it was crucial for Dallas to win the game… they were up almost the whole game and I was so excited, but then Seattle turned the game around in the last 3 minutes :( I was so disappointed.

Saturday was beautiful – the first really hot day – and Jon and I decided to take a long walk along the American river which is about 10 minutes from our apartment complex. It’s really nice to walk there, but we were in the sun for almost the whole time… thanks God I didn’t forget to put on sunscreen. I usually can’t stand being in the sun for longer than 30 minutes before I turn red as a lobster.
I went shopping later and then we barbequed some T-Bone Steak and I made a big salad for dinner. Netflix delivered “Meet the Fockers” in the mail yesterday, so we watched that last night. It was hilarious :) I really do like Ben Stiller as an actor (he’s so funny) and I also think Dustin Hoffmann and Barbara Streisand were great as his parents! I enjoyed it very much.

Today Jon and I went to the Outlet Stores in Folsom to get some new jeans and jeans shorts for Jon. It’s so cool how fast you’re in and out of the stores when you go shopping with guys :) They know exactly what they want and just go for it. No looking around and trying this and trying that… they pick out, try on and buy it *lol* it’s so funny how different guys and girls are in every respect.

Now Jon is in SF to see one of Matt’s concert and hopefully hang out with him afterwards. I am curious what they will talk about. As for me, that means I have an evening to myself and I love it… I took a nap, watched some TV and did some stationery stuff :) one perfect night!

Talk to you later. Love ya all!

Hey guys…
Jon and I will be driving to Ventura today. It’s only going to be for one night, but I am looking forward to it… it’ll be nice to see his parents and just go on a road trip. We always like to use the time in the car to talk :) I love it.

Also, I have to tell you, we watched “American Idol – the worst auditions” last night. I wonder, what are some of these people thinking even bothering to show up at the castings? It was hilarious though. Jon and I laughed so hard :) it was really worth watching it. Especially if the jury tells the candidate that “he/she is possibly the worst singer in the world” and their response is “You gotta be kidding me” *lmao* that is sooooo funny :)

Anyways, I hope you guys have a good weekend… I’ll be thinking about you. More news from me probably on Monday :)
Love ya.

not much happened the last two days – except for me being totally impatient about the notebook *lol* I have checked the order status at least 10x since Monday when we ordered it (I think I am a hopeless case). It seems like the TV tuner part will delay the delivery to early June which would just suck. I’ve heard from quite a few people that they got they delivery earlier than the anticipated delivery date, so I am being hopeful that I’ll be one of these lucky people.Well apart from that, don’t ask about my visa stuff. It’s a big, big mess again! I start wondering if I REALLY want to go through this again� :( One step forward, two steps back! After receiving my tax return so quickly, I knew there would be a new drawback! I am not even mad at anymore.
Is there something like getting used to that crap?
Sorry, I am not in a very talkative mood today :(

Hey everyone,

how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good, I have to say. We started off with a lazy Friday night. We got some pizza for dinner and watched the NBA Playoffs. It’s going to be a really tight race between the semi-finalists. San Antonio and Seattle and Dallas and Phoenix are fighting hard to win the Playoff Series. Both semi-finals are tied at 2-2.

Saturday I went sticker shopping. Cathy introduced me to this yahoo swap group and I signed up for a sticker swap, so that meant I had to go and get tons of stickers! It was so much fun!! :) I already sent off the first sticker sets to people!

Later that afternoon I went grocery shopping with Jon, because we had invited Claudia and Stoyan over. The weather was really really nice on Saturday (close to 85°F/29°C) and I was wearing my shorts and flipflops and we had decided it’s time for the first BBQ of the summer :) (we already had our first BBQ of the year sometime back in February *lol*).
I got lots of vegetables and prepared shish kebab (that’s what they call “meat & vegetable skewers” here – I used pieces of meat, onion, bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms and tomatoes). I also prepared a “Bavarian potato salad”, which was my first time, but it turned out really well. It’s just that the potatoes here are driving me nuts! I was looking for the words “mehlig”and “festkochend” in the dictionary and I found “mealy” and “waxy” potatoes (I hope these are the right words).
Well, for potato salad you need waxy potatoes (which I haven’t really found here anywhere), because otherwise the potatoes will just fall apart after cooking and there is no way to slice them for potato salad. It still tasted very good though.

And now the big news: Sunday morning I checked my bank account online (which I always do once in a while) and guess what? They U.S. Treasury had deposited my tax refund!!!!!!!!!!! *yay* :) I couldn’t believe my eyes. They actually deposited it on Friday, which makes Friday, the 13th a lucky day for me from now on :) and the best part is: I got all my money back AND I didn’t pay a stupid tax adviser to do my return, which means I saved another $200+ by doing it myself!
Girls, it’s notebook time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After cleaning up the apartment and doing the laundry (which was really necessary – we hadn’t done it in almost two weeks!), we went to the Dell store in Roseville. Well, it turned out to be one of these “mobile stations” within a mall, but they had some notebooks to look at and try out. we also talked to one of the guys (who got a little annoyed, I think, because I was asking so many “dumb” questions *lol* – no, just kidding, he was actually really nice!) and I think we have settled for the Dell Inspiron 6000 :)

Jon was going kind of crazy and actually wanted to get one with an even bigger screen, but I think that 15.4″ are enough and I still want it to be portable (and it’s MY notebook anyways ;))

I am soooooooo excited. We’re probably going to order it today (!) and I hope the shipping won’t take too long. I am so impatient now :)
I am going to keep you posted *lol*

Love ya all!

this story may break it. Jon went for a walk the other night and when he got home, he told me he had encountered a tiny little mouse sitting on the sidewalk. It didn’t run away or anything, so he was wondering if it was hurt. I got dressed immediately (I was on my way to bed) and we went over where he had seen it. The mouse was still sitting there and, when we got closer, froze. I knew that mice do that in certain situations of danger – so I grabbed a little branch and tried to poke it. It was still alive!
When we tried to make it move a little, we saw that one of his limbs was barely visible since the whole side was swollen. I felt so terrible. I knew we couldn’t take it home and take care of it, but I had an awful feeling leaving it behind. The least we could do was getting it out of the way, so nobody would accidentally step on it (although I didn’t really expect any other American but Jon to go for a walk around the neighborhood at night :)).

Of course, I had to check yesterday on my way home, if the mouse had died and I was happy when I realized it wasn’t where we had left it. So hopefully it made it back home into its little mousehole and will fully recover :) (I am a hopeless case, am I not? :))

Last night I had planned for a nice quiet evening at home – Jon was supposed to be out, but then he stayed home and we had a nice evening together. I did some stationery stuff *hehe*, uploaded some pictures (I think about 200 random pictures that I had on my desktop – wow, I seriously need to get some print outs ordered soon!) and we watched the NBA Playoffs. My bet is that San Antonio and Dallas will make it to the Final of the Western Conference. Since the Kings are out, I am cheering for the Dallas Mavericks because of Dirk Nowitzki  – at least a German in the Playoffs Finals would be nice, don’t you think?

OMG! And then… you won’t believe what was played on the radio this morning – “The right stuff” by NKOTB :) I couldn’t believe my ears! This song is so “old” and – believe it or not- I still knew the lyrics by heart. It was soooo cool! *lol*

That reminded me – after having a look in Cathy’s diary this morning- that I wanted to post pictures of my top 3 favorite men. So here we go:

#1 my sweetheart Jonathan Bond :)

#2 Joe McIntyre (ex-NKOTB)

#3 Jason Wade (Lifehouse)

Ok girls, I am almost off for the weekend – after having a nice long talk with Kim on the phone (thanks for your call, sweets!), it’ s almost time to go home :) I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. Looks like we’re not doing anything exciting, but since the weather has been improving, we might have a BBQ tomorrow :) oh yeah, and we might go to a dell store and check out the notebooks :) have I mentioned lately that I really really really want one?? :)

Love you all.

I had one of these weird thoughts last night.
If I wasn’t myself, would I want to be friends with me??? *lol*
I think this online test (see last post) made me think of it and I was just wondering what it would be like to know myself as a “friend”… like, I am someone else and I am friends with “Sannie” :)
would I think “Wow, what a cool person” or more like “losen up a little” :) it’s not like I am not having fun, but I am not the big “party girl” and sometimes I get the feeling that everyone else is, but me! And if there’s something wrong with that (haha, Sanni, does that sound familiar? :))
I know, I am kind of a weirdo, you must think… but I just can’t help thinking about weird stuff like that sometimes (of course, I won’t post all of my weird thoughts on xanga :) I still want you to like me *hehe*)

So back to the every day stuff… I went on a long walk with Jon last night. I think we know our neighborhood by heart by now *lol* I just love walking around and looking at houses. I am fascinated how people decorate there homes and I love to peak into the windows. It’s so much fun to see how other people live. I also realized, Americans…. excuse me… Californians don’t use their garages as garages, but as storage lockers *lol* It is so funny (but surely due to most houses not having a basement), because they’re overflowing with boxes, bikes, and all kinds of crap. Oh yeah, and of course the occasional work bench ;)

When we got back, we watched some SATC (yeah, I am still into it, even though I haven’t mentioned it very much lately) and then I finished your letter, Cath. I put it in the mail this morning :)

And now I think it’s time to go home… I am hungry and I don’t feel like working anymore *lol* see you tomorrow.