theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for August 2008

An unexpected new toy

filed under: love, my so-called life, shopping, yes!

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to tell you about the shopping on Sunday. Our 2-year cell phone contract with Verizon was about to expire very soon and we already had looked into extending our contract and upgrading our phones for a while.
We’re on a family share plan with J’s parents right now (which means we talk for free among the four of us) and that seemed like a good deal and also, we were thinking of adding J’s brother to the plan as well, since he’s back in the States for good now.

I really didn’t know if I wanted to upgrade my cell phone or not at this point. I was not completely satisfied with my LG Cherry Chocolate anymore (the touch pad just sucks, although I really liked the color, size and overall feel of the phone – and let’s face it, it’s just cute and RED!), but getting a new phone seemed way too much of an investment right now.
J needed a new phone and since he’s the main account holder, the phone he picked was pretty much for free (excluding tax – of course). As the secondary person on the account, your offers are not that intriguing, BUT here’s what turned to be a great deal for us/me: since we wanted to upgrade J’s parents phones (they only have very basic, simple flip phones), and we needed to get an extra phone for J’s brother, we decided to buy one phone (with mail-in-rebate!) and get (up to) three new flip phones for free!

I pretty much lucked out here, because I ended up with this new baby:

lgdare 

The LG Dare (Verizon’s equivalent to AT&T’s iPhone).
And I am pretty impressed, to say the least!

I even got a one month promotional “free web access” on top of it. Sweet!
I don’t think I’ll sign up for it after this month, because after all, I have access to computers and the web pretty much 24/7, but it’s going to be convenient to have the possibility to check my email or look something up when I am on the go! I can still do that without buying a monthly package and the charges by MB seem pretty reasonable, too.

I must admit I had ogled the iPhone since the day it came out (it is pretty!), but I could never really justify to myself to buy it, besides the fact that my provider didn’t offer the iPhone and I would have had to switch to AT&T.
Also, to tell the truth: I am really not that huge of a cell phone user and I really didn’t see the need of having an expensive phone with web access capability and whatnot.

Well, people can change their minds a little when the situation asks for it, right? Especially, if the situation involves a pretty sweet deal on an upgrade to an almost-iPhone. Who could say no?

As you might be able to tell: someone’s a real happy camper!

This is why I hate being so far away from home

filed under: family, LDR, my so-called life

My Dad had a bicycle accident on Monday. Nobody called me and I basically found out because I just happened to call my parents’ house Tuesday night (their time).
Ok, in their defense I have to say that my Mom was going to call me that night and I just happened to call before she got a chance to call me.
I still don’t understand why she didn’t call me Monday night after they got back from the emergency room. After all, it was still midday for me here.

Anyway. No worries. My Dad is ok - sort of.
What happened is this: My Dad plays tennis every Monday night and this time he had taken his bike to get to the tennis courts. At 9 p.m., after his training, he rode his bike home in the dark. That was when he completely overlooked a cobblestone on the street and hit it with his front tire, which sent him flying head first over the handlebars and his face hitting the asphalt.

Ouch!

Brotherly company

filed under: family, fun!, my so-called life

Last weekend, we spent time with J’s brother. It was fantastic. We hadn’t seen him for about 9 months, suffice it to say that J was really excited to spend time with him. I, of course, could relate as I am counting down the days until I’ll see my sister myself :) Only 10 more days!!

On Friday, we made a trip to the Bay Area, more precisely “Tomales Bay”. It’s a long narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco and is formed by a submerged portion of the San Andreas Fault.

Tomales Bay 

Street smart?

filed under: FYI, I can't make this shit up, my so-called life

I really, really don’t want to point fingers or even make generalizations, but to be honest, it’s a miracle that I have not been involved in an accident yet.

So far I was convinced that bad drivers are my worst enemies on the street. They don’t use their turn signals, slam on their breaks, can’t make up their minds where they want to go and change directions in the last minute or drive nonchalantly through a red light through an intersection with afternoon rush-hour traffic. I live on a one-way street and I have even witnessed the occasional driver turning right into the one-way street against oncoming traffic. Really, I’ve seen it all. More often than I wish I had.

Even worse than drivers in the other cars though: Bicyclists.
Now, I have to make a distinction here between the ‘serious bicyclist’, who is professionally equipped and dressed in sports gear, helmet and such, and who usually knows the rules, and the “leisure bicyclist’, who rides a cruiser bike which in most cases is not even roadworthy. Those are the worst.

As a reminder: I come from a country where bike training was required in elementary school, where we had to pass a test to be certified as “roadworthy bicyclists” (not that anybody would ever ask you about it, but whatever – although police will stop you if you ride your bike unsafely) and where we learned how to signal correctly, how to read street signs (yes! they also apply to people on bikes!) and which side of the street to ride on.

That does NOT seem to be the case in the US.
People don’t stop for red lights, they ride on the wrong side of the street against the traffic (ha! consider riding on the sidewalk a trifle now!), they don’t give hand signals or any other indication of where they’re going and are generally unpredictable. And don’t even get me started on the non-existing head- and tail-lights (which pairs up nicely, or not!, with almost non-existing street lights, which equals “no chance whatsoever of being able to see a bicyclist at night”).
I also find it quite the challenge to pass a person on a bike without running the risk of hitting him or being hit by him.

Maybe I am a little bit overreacting. Just maybe. After all, I haven’t been involved in an accident. Yet.
But even if you didn’t have the proper bike education in school (which I guess can simply not be assumed everywhere in the world), what about being a little ‘street smart’ here? Just a little.

Sleeping, watching movies and some shopping

filed under: fun!, my so-called life, shopping

That pretty much sums up my weekend. Sounds good, no?

We met with the German meetup group on Friday. It was only 5 of us, but we still had a great time. J got to speak more German than he has spoken with me in months. I know, there really is no excuse. We get lazy is all. It’s a shame. Hopefully, he’ll get a whole lot more practice in this group, because everybody seems very eager to converse in German and the native speakers among us are the valuable resource that they need to improve. It’s a perfect setup :)

We also watched a German movie later that night. “Mostly Martha” (German title: Bella Martha) with Martina Gedeck (who also starred in “The lives of others”). It’s amazing that movies that I haven’t even heard of before make it over here to the States . “Mostly Martha” is one of them – although it was a very good movie and it obviously was so popular in the US that it inspired a US version of it: “No Reservations” with Catherine-Zeta Jones. Wow, an American movie that was inspired by a German movie. Let that sink in for a minute…that, when more often than not every successful movie on the big screens seems to come from the US these days.

Anyone who wants to wallow in some German pride here with me for a minute? ;)

Then we went to Karaoke again this weekend. J seems to get a kick out of singing in front of people again and it gives us the opportunity to get out of the house. If that isn’t excuse enough ;)

On Sunday, I went grocery shopping on a somewhat unplanned shopping trip and found those beauties.

Love me some new red shoes :) 
Just couldn’t resist… I totally have a thing for red shoes and they seem comfortable. I needed some comfortable shoes that go with skirts and jeans and easily dress up a and down. Don’t you love them already?

And, how was your weekend?

We had a good time…

filed under: fun!, my so-called life

… can you tell? :)

Lemon Drop

Besides the usual weekend stuff – cleaning, grocery shopping and laundry – J and I went out to dinner. It was warm, there was an outside patio and yummy food.
Oh yes, and drinks :) Or should I rather say: one drink, which I clung to for the rest of the night?
You see, I usually don’t drink… but I do love me a light and sweet something every once in a while :)
I had a “Lemon Drop, which tastes pretty much like “Smirnoff Ice”,  just with more style. Just love the glass with the sugar-coated rim.

And, later that night: there was Karaoke.
Not that I would sing Karaoke, as in ever!, but J did  and it was cool because it gave him the opportunity to sing and perform in front of people again. He really had a great time and I am glad we’re getting out of the house more! :)

Therefore, I won’t mention that I went to bed late. Very late. As a result, I slept the rest of the weekend. I am such a baby! Did I mention that I took naps, too?

(Hello sleepyhead!)

I don’t know if it’s my full time job that leaves me exhausted at the end of the week or if this is age related (OMG, I said it!) but oh wait, maybe it’s just because I am in desperate need of a vacation.
Only 23 more days! Piece of cake!

My first blog award!

filed under: this and that

I have been awarded The “Brilliant Weblog Award”

  brillanteweblog

 by Maribeth over at dackelprincess.com

Thank you so much, Maribeth! What an honor!

Now it is time for me to nominate a few people that I enjoy reading.

The rules for this award are:

* The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.

* Link to the person you received your award from.

 * Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

* Put links to those blogs on yours.

* Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

I now have the honor of sending the award on to seven other bloggers (believe me, I could have picked quite a few more!). Here are my picks:

Kim at notcrazyunwell.com

Aaryn at aarynbelfer.com

Ute at utesworld.wordpress.com

Sanna at sannasblog.wordpress.com

Kerrianne at kerrianne.org

Antje at nussiinsweden.wordpress.com

Jen at schnozzfest.com

Crazy or dedicated?

filed under: FYI, my so-called life

I assume you could say that I am tiny bit “crazy” that I regret not having been in Southern California when the earthquake happened. I am a little bit of a geek when it comes to that, and hey, people are crazy in weirder ways than I am. After all, this is part of my job.

Although I am working up here in Northern California, our office was frequented by TV and News people regarding the earthquake in LA last week. It’s funny how the first thing they ask is “Can this happen here in our area?”
Well, I guess, if you live in California, you should assume that you might experience an earthquake every once in a while, although I admit that the chances in the Central Valley are much slimmer than, let’s say, in the Bay area.

I guess, the reason for writing about this today is that I want to raise awareness for the “largest earthquake drill in the history of the U.S.” organized and planned by the U.S. Geological Survey  and based on The ShakeOut Earthquake Scenario, a hypothetical scenario that describes what will happen during and after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the southernmost 300 km of the San Andreas fault.
I very much encourage everyone, who lives in Southern California, to register and participate in this unique event!

The ShakeOut Scenario earthquake and projected damages will be used as a basis for public drills and emergency response exercises and so far a very large number of individuals, businesses, schools and organizations have  already signed up to be part of this. I know, earthquakes cannot be prevented and – as of now – not be predicted precisely, BUT everyone can do something to be as prepared as possible.
Everyone who lives in an earthquake-prone area should definitely get Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country, a handbook about earthquake science and preparedness.
You can request a free copy from the website or read it online.

Besides learning about faults in California that cause the earthquakes, they give you hand-on tips on what you can do personally:

  • The seven steps to earthquake safety
  • STEP #1: Identify potential hazards in your home and begin to fix them.
  • STEP #2: Create a disaster-preparedness plan.
  • STEP #3: Prepare disaster supplies kits.
  • STEP #4: Identify your building’s potential weaknesses and begin to fix them.
  • STEP #5: Protect yourself during earthquake shaking- drop, cover, and hold on.
  • STEP #6: After the earthquake, check for injuries and damage.
  • STEP #7:When safe, continue to follow your disaster-preparedness plan.
  • Reducing the costs of earthquakes in California

    • I guess, I am on a mission here, ha!
    But all I can say is:  Better be safe than sorry!