Oh, How the Mighty Fall

I received very disturbing news yesterday. My faithful, reliable car is only worth $1300. It is worth much more than that to me. I imagine the feeling I had looking at Kelley’s blue book value for the Tracer is similar to the way I’d feel if someone told me my pet is ugly or my child is stupid. I felt so sad. After all, I have been driving that car for nine years.

I was interested in its value because it was rear-ended about a week ago. A punk kid didn’t see me stopped in the road, waiting to turn left (with my signal on, of course), and he crashed into me. We were both okay, but the Tracer was a little beat up. Thankfully the other driver was insured, and the appraiser wrote us a check for $1350 for repairs. We deposited the check because, even with the repairs, we couldn’t sell the Tracer for that much money. Yang took his blow torch and tools to the bumper and trunk last night, and the car is almost as good as before.

The Beginning of the Hijack

The New York Times reports about the investigation into the beginning of the September 11 attacks. It is a sobering read. In 1999, I was living in Beijing. In 1999, Bin Laden was planning to crash planes. Apparently, his organizational skills aren't quite as impressive as some originally believed, but he accomplished his horribly amazing plan in the end.

We're In!

We moved in over the weekend. Every room is full of boxes and unsettled furniture, but we’re in. We can take our time unpacking. Paint is on the walls and carpet on the floor. It looks fantastic. Even our furniture looks better because it is in our house.

I have a confession (now that I am done painting and don’t have to maintain a positive mental attitude): I hate painting. I don’t like it one bit. We saved loads of money, but I lost a week of my life to pain, tears, and anguish. Yang doesn’t mind painting- he is really good at it. To his credit, he did the lion’s share of the work. Nonetheless, I still don’t like it. To all of you considering painting your own house to save money: choose wisely. Unless you have Yang helping you, I would advise against it. In fact, even if you have Yang helping you, I would still advise against it.

More good news: it only took 35 minutes to commute to work! I worried it would take closer to an hour. Hooray!

Infrastructure -- The Great Satan . . .

. . . or wait, maybe it is China. They are, after all, Godless communists. The New York Times reports on the Chinese engineers and construction workers who were killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. The Chinese were building a road.

A senior Afghan military commander in southern Afghanistan, Hajji Mir Wali, said Mullah Dadullah, one of the top Taliban commanders, recently issued orders to his fighters to strike at road builders. "His orders were: 'First, you have to kill engineers to stop the building of the roads. Second, you have to burn schools and spread out leaflets. Third, you have to put mines and attack government officials; and fourth, if you can, you have to attack American forces,' " Mr. Wali said. He said he was told of the orders by a member of the Taliban who was present at the meeting in which they were issued.

Well, I'm Back.

I have been waiting for things to slow down, and for life to return to its normal routine, before I started summer blogging. However, after almost a month of waiting, I have learned that there is no routine (and there probably won’t be for quite a while).

WORK–Work is lovely. I like my office and I like my work. That is why I returned this summer.

CHINA–Amazing! It was so nice to see my parents and to traipse around Hong Kong. The city is very impressive, but unfortunately, the food was nothing special. (It must be the British influence). The food in Beijing didn’t disappoint us–it was worth flying half way around the world to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant. And, as always, the shopping was great. We also went to Macau. Macau was relaxed, but still exciting. Beautiful Portugese buildings dot the hills (in between the Casinos).

HOUSE–We have one! We received our keys on Saturday. Closing was a nightmare, but all’s well that ends well. We have been furiously painting ever since Saturday. Late nights every night. Poor Yang- I don’t think he has received more than three hours of sleep a night. He pulled an all-nighter last night. I left the house after 11 pm, and he was planning to work a few more hours. A few more hours turned into all night, and he is welcoming the carpet installers as I write. (And we thought law school was hard). So, here is our tentative schedule: carpet in today; finish painting doors and bathrooms tomorrow (and put all the fixtures back on the walls), and finish cleaning the new house tomorrow; pack up our apartment and move on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday; clean the apartment on Tuesday. Hooray! Last Sunday was our last day at church. I said good-bye to all our friends there (sniff).

My life has been our new house lately. I haven’t been reading the news, I haven’t turned on the television in weeks (that is a good thing), and I feel very disconnected to everything outside the move. A friend at work told me that Fantasia won American Idol days after it happened (I can’t believe I missed the finale!). My A Paper re-write and research assistant responsibilities are hanging over my head–I think I’ll have time to get to them later. I hope everything will calm down a bit in another week or two.

Cheers everyone, and thanks J for the strawberries!