Here it comes!!!

Right at us!!!
It will be interesting to see what will happen for the next 24 hours or so.

How to get a FREE Oil Change

My car is due for an oil change and I discovered this Amazing Auto Center through the weekly ads. They were close by and they had a coupon. So hey, why not, right?

They told me to bring my car in at 9am and I did. The guy there said they did not have a suitable oil filter for my car and he made a call to order it. He told me it should not take long as the company who is going to deliver the oil and oil filter was only 10 minutes away. Mine was the only car there so he worked on it and rotated the tires.

After 30 minutes, he made a call again and rushed for my oil filter.

We wait....

After one hour....

Wait some more...

Guy makes another phone call.

Clock ticks.

Another hour goes by...

Guy makes another phone call. Sounded angry this time.
Puts phone down and apologizes to me for the wait.

Another hour passes by...

Oil filter and engine oil arrives! Finally!!

Oh but wait!! Wrong oil filter!!

Guy cusses and tells them to rush back and get the correct filter.
He tells me these people are ridiculous!

Almost lunch time.
So I called the husband to see if he wants to meet me for lunch. I also needed to get out of that propane smelling hole.
We grab a burger nearby.

Husband drops me off at the Auto Center. I see my car parked out front. Good sign.

Guy hands me my keys and refused to let me pay for the oil change. He apologized for having me wait 3 hours. And I did not even complain about having to wait that long. I know my history of bad luck at any Auto place so I was expecting this, or something even worse. Atleast this guy did not make me change my wiper blades.

I tell him I'll come back next time.

Next time, I MUST remember to bring a book!!

The theraphy

While my parents were enjoying themselves in sunny California (ok, maybe not so sunny right now), shaking hands with Mickey and coming face-to-face with dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, I am succumbing myself to a 3rd degree treatment for loneliness.

And the treatment you ask? -----------> Turning this pile of plastic bags into ......

...........


THIS!!!
So am I crazy yet? Even just a little maybe?
Crazy or not, I call this a pretty healthy pastime. It could be worse.

A whole new world

Jason and I went for a ice hockey game with his colleagues at the Bobcats Arena downtown tonight. It was actually fun watching the game live and the atmosphere of cheering crowds and people dancing in their seats made all the difference. We stopped at Cosmos for dinner before heading inside the Stadium. Very eclectic dining experience. They had tapas, a sushi bar, dim sum, Italian, Greek and even Satay on their menu. It was a bar so we all had to talk loud.

Since we live in the suburbs (or "kampung" as they call it in Malaysia), we hardly ever go into the city eventhough it's less than an hours drive. And I don't think I have ever walked the streets in uptown before. So I told Jason, "Hey, this is like New York" The people dress different. The buildings look different. The restaurants look different.

After the game, all of us went to Brixx for some food and drinks. Again, we had to talk loud because the place was noisy. We looked around us and the diners were mostly the same crazy group from the hockey game.
As we were walking to our car, many young people were just only coming in and all ready to party the night away.

We came home at midnight. I must admit I feel old.

Finally!!!

I got up at 4am, looked out the window and it was snowing!!! So I woke the husband and we went out to the balcony. But we didn't stay long outside. It was freezing! Duh.

Now the snow's gone because it's 30F. Just ice on the cars, the roofs, grass and trees and my poor plants.

"eye-KEE-ah" me!

Oh yeah!!!
Look who's finally coming to Charlotte!

I hope I get to live till Spring 2009.

My parents just flew off this evening.
The house seems so empty and strange. I forgot how it was before they came here.
I'm not doing so good right now but holding up.

Here's what I've been doing...

....Making 250 wedding favors. I actually enjoy doing this, especially for the special people in my life.

The color theme is smoky blue and white. And the groom created their very own logo. This is so exciting. Amost makes me feel like wanting to get married again. Ha ha.

Bucket O' Rocks

We went sluicing for gemstones today at the Enerald Hollow Mines in the small town of Hiddenite, located at the foothills of Brushy Mountains. We have been told that this place offers buckets that are unprocessed and has not been worked on. Sluicing is a process of taking a seat on a sluiceway and washing buckets of ore to find gemstones. We went sluicing before at two other locations in the mountains but their buckets of rocks were mostly "processed". It's always more exciting to know that what's inside your bucket is a mystery and you either find something good in it or you don't. We then took our loot to the lapidary to see if we found anything of value. The gemologist (Steve) walked us through patiently and explained every single rock to us. It was certainly an interesting lesson. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a potato agate!! I think we did pretty well today. My dad had a good piece of garnet in his loot. The rest of us found various agates, a moonstone, some calcites, citrine, amethyst and quartz.
Maybe next spring, we will try and do some creeking. And after we graduate from that, we will try digging!!! Yowza!

Adieu 2006

Was the year memorable? Well, hell yeah! ---->
- Building and moving into our new home.
- Making a fountain.
- Building a fence.
- Planting 7 trees.
- Getting hired as a permanent employee.
- My blue car.
- Having my parents over for 3 months. And my Godma and Uncle Andrew for 2 weeks.
- Visited Atlanta, Oxford, Seagrove, the zoo in Asheboro, the mountains, Williamsburg, Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Mount Vernon

We spent the New Year's eve afternoon at Brian and Sophie's playing some new games and munching on snacks and yummy appetizers all afternoon and being entertained by Elise. We also got to meet their friends, Marshall and Haley and Brian Listerman. For dinner, Brian and Sophie made some delicious homemade pizza and we got to choose our own toppings.
Then we came home, filled our champagne glasses with sparkling grape juice and welcomed the New Year with my parents and Trouble. Trouble had a lick of sparkling grape juice.

Right now I'm watching Darth Vader, ewoks and probably a hundred troopers march by in the Pasadena Rose Parade on TV. I think this is the coolest Rose Parade so far!!
Husband is making a stuffed pork roast for the New Year's dinner at The Gowers this evening.

May the force be with you all in 2007!