random ramblings

Today was the saddest day of Hendrik’s life ….
we had to call a towing company to move his car from a movie theater’s parking lot to the dealer’s :p .. hehe too bad I didn’t have my digicam with me.. but Hendrik’s camera phone did a decent job of capturing the moments

Last night we wanted to watch a movie…  thinking to see either Casino Royale or The Fountain. I even  already bought the tickets online from Fandango ( bought fandango coupons from ebay hehe ).  We knew there’s something wrong with the car from the previous night’s squeaking, but we figured it was something to the A/C so we thought as long as we don’t turn it on it would be ok.

When we got there in the parking lot of the cinema, we drove through a speed bump, then we heard a clunking sound (something fell off ?) and the brake warning light lighted up.. o0h didn’t look good… Hendrik parked the car and popped up the hood. I actually went in to redeem our movie tickets from the machine.  A few minutes later he told me that it looked like we won’t be watching any movie .. the alternator ? / timing? belt ? was out of place ? Well I really don’t understand engine stuff.. but Hendrik said this is really bad. We probably shouldn’t drive the car.  Hendrik called a couple of friends.  Then we decided to just go home and leave the car there. Toga & Cathy picked us up and dropped us home.  So this morning we had to rent a car,  call the towing company,  drop the car at the only Mitsubishi dealer in Austin, which was quite farrrrr from here.  So there goes our Saturday.. half a day gone just like that.. Hendrik’s now taking a nap while I’m putting pictures of his car being towed hehehe

anyways..  we had a good expensive Kobe beef steak and sushi for lunch .. at the expense of his company. To reward his 5 years of service, NI gave Hendrik $100 to dine out at a restaurant of our choice .. so being kiasu, I searched for several places in town and finally chose Kobe Steak House.  Our lunch bill for two after tax and tips came out to be $111…. it’s the most expensive lunch we’ve ever had hehe. 

hehe I spent most of today sleeping    

Last night we left the house around 11.15PM wanting to join the midnight madness sales at San Marcos Outlets, about 50+ miles from here.   About 2 miles from the exit, just a little past midnight, the traffic started to slow down, and an obvious line to the outlet exit had formed … it’s really surprising to me.. It’s our first time out on Black Friday hehe I didn’t know what to expect. I could imagine the craziness in electronic stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. I’ve seen what it’s like during PS3 launch last week.  But I thought outlet shopping would have just a nice crowd..  like any normal day, except that it’s midnight    I was so wrong hehe.. Hendrik thought it’s a good idea to take the next exit and then do a U-turn.  Haha.. not really a brilliant idea because the next exit has the same long lines.. And traffic comes from both ways too, we came from the North and there were long lines coming from the South too.   We parked at the first spot we saw and it’s farrrr from where we usually park. Oh btw, Hendrik’s car started to make a squeaking sound when we stopped the first time to join in the line to exit the highway. And the squeaking wouldn’t stop, it got very loud at one point. I thought it was funny, I’m a little concerned since I didn’t know what it is. Hendrik was just embarassed that people were looking at us because our car was squeaking hehe.  There… it ruined his mood for the night.

So we spent about 3.3 hours there.. I counted that we actually only went inside 15 stores out of the 200+ combined number of stores at the Prime Outlets and Tanger Outlets.  And we ended up shopping bags only from 4 different stores hehe  probably not worth our trip at midnight..  well actually we would have gone into more stores if they weren’t so packed. Hendrik wanted to try a pair of jeans at GAP.. on the way to the fitting room, he saw how long the line to the cashiers was haha and he changed his mind..  he decided it’s not worth his time to line up just to save a few extra bucks.  There were probably 150 people in line to pay.. and I’m not kidding ! And then we saw a long line outside while we were walking between stores, hmmm probably about 40-50 people .. guess what they’re lining up for ?! They’re lining up to get inside the COACH outlet. Hehe crazy people.

Ok so around 4AM Hendrik’d had enough. He wanted to go home! The original plan was we were going to stop by Office Max, Circuit City, or any other stores in town .. they’re all opening at 5AM..  just for fun! and maybe we’ll pick up several cheap stuffs.. hehehe Well, there’s this 12" laptop at Office Max ($599) that we’re interested in,  and a 6MP Casio Exilim ($140) that I wanted to get at Target. But because of his car’s squeaking problem, Hendrik just wanted to go home asap. I guess it’s not time that I get a new laptop or digicam…I’ll just wait for online deals.

this was 4 weeks ago … after i was told that it’s time to take them off !

and this is now

meet my new lifetime companion in silver metallic  

for now i’m supposed to wear them 24/7 i guess eventually it will be reduced to sleep time only… but i probably will have to wear them indefinitely.  I’m talking funny now with them inside my mouth..  I didn’t even feel my braces for the last 1/2 year since I was already so used to them.. but now my mouth has to get used to a pair of new objects again..

and here’s the BEFORE – AFTER

Hendrik and I might join the Black Friday madness this year .. hmm I’d go just for the experience hahaa but Hendrik said NO he wouldn’t want to go if we don’t really have plan to get anything ..  I’ve just always been curious to see what it’s like

I want a new 5-6MP digital camera, .. I would like a small sized one to replaced my Pentax Optio S4i, but I’m also considering to get a Digital SLR one  .. hmm and maybe a new Laptop.  Hendrik so far just wants to get a printer – he never has one and he thinks he needs one, I’ve been offering to mine since I never used it (I don’t even know if it still works) ..

If we really go this year I’ll probably pick up a bunch of cheap memory cards (1Gb SD card for $2.99), flash drives (1 Gb USB Flash drive for $3.99), and stock up on my DVD-Rs .. hopefully I’ll get some free stuffs too haha ..  somebody out there actually put together an excel spreadsheet  that list all the deals that’s out and we can filter / sort / search it .. it’s real handy

v : say, barusan gua chat ma lia lama deh
h : ada berita apa ?
v : kata lia buku fengshui buat taun dpn belom keluar jadi kita ga bakal bisa set date ntar kalo balik.
h : ok
v : buku nya ntar baru keluar abis sinchia, hehe tiap taun keluar edisi baru ternyata
h : ok 
v : eh dia lagi di madrid tuh skrg..  enak bgt ..
h : ngapain ?
v : yah jalan2 lah ma acis
h : kok liburan nya sering bgt ?
v : huehehe iyah.. enak ya. kpn dong kita jln2 ke eropa ?
h : kita mah savings dulu skrg, ntar baru senang2 kalo dah umur 60
v : ah edan elo mah 
h : skrg ini kan kita kira2 save 30% tiap taun, kalo bisa ya target gua tuh 40% bisa masuk tabungan…
v : yah tp aneh deh elo ga pernah beli apa2 tp kok checking account dikit melulu.. bokee aja melulu kerjaannya
h : yah kan skrg ini bayar tuition itu bener2 big hit bgt, sekali keluar $17k.
v : oh iya.. hmmm
h : By umur 30, bisa gak ya kita punya $xxxk total in 401k, stocks, mutual funds, savings, etc.. ?
v : bisa bgt lah segitu mah udah ga jauh.. Yah tapi kalo gua sekolah lagi langsung abis lagi lah.
h : Ya iya makanya MBA di mexico aja
v : yah gua pengen sih ke CEIBS di shanghai, bagus programnya 18 bulan total cost nya cuma $27k.. kalo di UT itu 1 semester doang kali.. gila MBA di sini mahal pisan!
h : CEIBS itu partneran sama siapa..  ? yg ngediriinnya ?
v : ya itu banyak kok partner nya UT jg salah satu partner nya …ada exhange programnya. ini nih  #1 MBA program di Asia-Pacific  tuh.. sedunia ranking 21, bagus bgt kan ? UT Austin aja McCombs ranking nya lebih rendah #62 worldwide, kalo Purdue Krannert #77.. ini ranking dari Financial Times
h : ok
v : ntar gua kirim GMAT score gua ke sono ah kalo bagus
h : ok
v : tp kalo gua sekolah di shanghai, nanti suami gua gimana dong ?
h : cariin istri *substitute*
v : hmm gmn kalo kita kawinnya diundur aja
h : *shocked emoticon*

a few seconds later

h : kenapa emang ?  mau sekolah dulu ?
v : iya, how do you like that idea beb ?
h : *this is a trick question*

huehehe
he knows me too well

What a bummer. I thought that by this time today I would be brace-free. Three weeks ago my orthodontist that my teeth look really good and it’s time to take off my braces! And today was supposed to be it ! Today is actually the soonest appointment they could give me. They scheduled me a longer appointment today as they were also going to take impressions to make my retainer, and pictures for BEFORE/AFTER, etc. I was all ready for that.

So I went in to the doctor’s office with all smiles after lunch today, brushed my teeth, and the doctor examined my mouth. He found that a space had opened up in between my lower front teeth ! He handed me a mirror and showed that to me. It’s a very narrow gap but it’s pretty easy to see after he pointed it out. I never bothered to look at each tooth that closely so I don’t even know since when I had that gap, anyways my mouth is so full of metals and it’s hard to notice the details behind the wires.

Aargh this is bad news. He asked whether I want him to close that gap. Of course !! But this means I’ll have to wait again! Aargh. The doc instruct his assistant to put in a Power Thread around those lower teeth and he’s pretty confident that the space will close in just 2 days, and he tried to schedule me another deband appointment as soon as possible. I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to fit me in their schedule until another few weeks. But they did ! I’m going back there next week. I’ve been in braces for 21 months (I don’t even feel them anymore) so I guess another week is no big deal. Hopefully that space will be closed and no other space will open up. *Crossing my fingers* Then I’ll be going to Austin for Thanksgiving holidays brace-free !