Muffin made me proud!

Hmmm... that might be TMI but Muffin is my nickname for J :-P Anyway, he did his physical today and while he missed passing (by 2.5 measly points!! grrrrrr) he's improved dramatically over the last time. Everyone thinks so and I'm just oozing with pride at the moment. He dropped about 5 minutes off his 1 1/2 mile run time, as well as, 6 inches off his waist and 25 pounds in weight: in three months. Now if that isn't something then I don't know what is! He gets to retake the push-ups and sit-ups part on Friday and if he can do 16-19 more push-ups and 8 more sit-ups then he'll pass... to score Poor. But at least it's a past. Funny thing is that with what he did today it would've been a pass (still Poor but a pass nonetheless) for the 25-30 age group bracket. Unfortunately he's 24, so we'll see what we can do :-)

Why do I need food when I stay up?

Yeah I'm still awake, talking to J while he's at work and watching the History channel. They just finished an Alexander the Great special and now it's something on the History of Sex. It's not that I don't want to sleep but I also just feel like staying up. I mean why not? J has to stay up till 6:45am so I may as well keep him company. Right now we're talking about how to get my engine up to 280 wheep horsepower, which is an impressive feat on our Ebay budget. :-)

But about this food thing. About half an hour ago I just got a craving for Ramen chicken noodles of all things. I decided to go and take a shower to see if it would wear out but nope, I still feel hungry. Well, J is telling me to go to sleep so I guess I'll try and resist... hmm, maybe I could just have potato chips?

6+ hours of driving fun

It always amazes me how we can spend more hours driving than we were actually at the place and call it an adventure and be completely psyched about the whole experience! Like right now my legs are all sorts of cramped and I'm almost brain dead from exhausted but we brought back so much stuff from Project Nissan, plus we ate at the Jamaican restaurant that I've been dying to go to (Caribbean Grill). I also stopped by at the Caribbean Market (a shop next to the restaurant) and stocked up on guava jelly, crackers, ginger mint tea and pickapper sauce. I was kind of tentative about this trip because the last time when we went with Nate and Jamie, J and I had a huge ass fight and it was a terribly trip in my eyes. This morning looked like it was going to go downhill because we were both crabby coming out the house but things picked up and I'm sooooo happy it turned out good. I was even afraid to say something like, "Oh hey this is going really great compared to last time huh?" for fear of jinxing the whole thing. I was also worried that we might get caught in traffic cause J has to be at work in 45minutes but we were on schedule and he's here changing into his work clothes.

On the car front we picked up stuff for everyone in the group. Josh got spacers for his wheels, Krista got a hard core Project Mu shift knob, we picked up a Fairlady Z badge for Pam, a polyurethane shift knob for Chris and the turbo inlet gasket that Nate needed to replace in his car. J got a drift knob for his emergency brake, as well as, thermostat and I got 2 JDM option DVDs which are in English! It'll be a real treat to finally understand what everyone's saying in these things. You wouldn't believe how many option tapes, DVDs and magazines pass through this house and every last one of them is in straight Japanese! LOL

Pam and Chris are going to see the Grudge tonight but I'm saying a big no to that. 'Saw' was all the horror movie I needed to last me till the end of this year and WELL into the next! I'll just go see what they're doing outside and hunt down some food at the same time. :-)

Dallas

No, not the old soap opera :-) Although my Aunt Pat in the UK is quite into it, I sent her the first and second season on DVD because the price of it over there was just scandalous. J and I are heading over there with Josh and Krista to check out something for our cars. I'm hoping to be able to go to one of the Jamaican restaurants there (Caribbean Grill) for lunch. Plus, we were told that ther'es a Jamaican grocery attached to it and that will just make my day! Anyway, gotta go and drink my tea now cause we're meeting at 8 o'clock!


This was a blog I made using Hello to get Jas' pic on the server for his blog's profile. Needed to drop it somewhere in the archives to take it off my front page.

Yup, still awake

I left downstairs hanging out with everyone around 11pm saying that I was going to bed. So what happened? No, not The Sims 2... X-Men Legends. J had rented it today from Hollywood video but he'd also gotten Kill Zone which he played all afternoon. He'd left around 4:30pm to go and install someone's alternator but I was so wrapped up in playing my first non-cheat & legacy family in the sims (The Straughn Family's Humble Beginnings) that I didn't switch over to the PS2.

He was still downstairs so I decided to pop the game is and boy is it good! Some of the graphics are lacking but that was mentioned in the review. The developers at Raven Software said it was hard to generate graphics for a console as they were used to the greater graphics allowances on the PC. Anyway the game play and just sheer expansiveness of the game makes up for that. I finally quit at 1am to go up to Circle K and get hot chocolate.

J's back at Kill Zone now so I figure I'll just play the sims for a bit... this legacy challenge thing is quite addictive! :-)

ER

This morning I woke up and looked out my window to see one of the fire department's ambulances parked right outside. I looked a bit further to the left and there was also a firetruck! Needless to say I jumped out the bed and sprinted to the door, I couldn't smell any smoke or see any fire but if that's what was going down then I needed to know so I could start grabbing stuff to run.

I burst out the front door in my boy shorts and a tank top, hair all wild to see no smoke, no fire and no one running around evacuating people. By this time J was on my heels so I ducked back inside to put on a pair of shorts and a sweater. When I went back out I went to stand beside J on the stair case and my heart caught in my throat because they were taking a stretcher in my next door neighbor's house. And this isn't a situation where we don't even know the person, as happens alot here in the states I gather. We're friends with Nate and Jamie, he helps J work on cars and she and I are always chatting about the latest Frederick's of Hollywood or Victoria's Secret catalogue and exchanging recipes. So I didn't know what to do with myself and just stood there hugging J real tight till they wheeled the stretcher back out.

I was happy to see that she was sitting upright and obviously breathing and not bleeding but at the same time the whole scene was very unnerving. J and I went upstairs and changed and met them at Schumpert with an apple for Nate because I knew he wouldn't have stopped to eat. Turns out that based on her symptoms she has a kidney stone. Very, very painful. I felt so helpless sitting there with them in the ER because she was in so much pain and there was nothing I could do.

When the released her J and I went and got Subway for the three of us and Koolaid for Jamie and went and hung out in there apartment. Later on the rest of the guys that we hang out with showed up and we all ended up piling the bar-b-q grill into Pam's boyfriend's truck and taking it over to the boat launch to chill out. We had a great old time, especially since another local car group was having their meeting there and were in complete shock that we'd set up our bar-b-q section LOL Later on we went and took pictures of all the cars at the Isle of Capri casino nearby, since Pam now has her Fairlady Z back from the shop. Jamie's doing better as well, her pain medication is really good but the thing is that the stones can come back at anytime without warning and they're really really painful :-(

Funny Bone Live

I just got back home from hanging out with the Shift_sideways guys and their friends. Josh had tickets to the Funny Bone comedy spot in downtown Shreveport for tonight. To be honest when I realized that J' would be working nights and unable to go, I was thinking about staying but I felt bad because last night that's exactly what I did and ditched on going to the game arcade at Isle of Capri with everyone. Then I heard that some of Krista's friends and Chris' friends would be coming along and I got apprehensive because I've only met up with these guys say 3 weeks ago and I had a suspicion Nate and Jamie wouldn't be going so I was getting ready to feel left out.

Dun, dun daaaa! Pam to the rescue. She managed to find a babysitter for the night and we rode together down to the Hollywood casino parking lot. The show was hilarious! There were three seperate acts and I laughed myself a brand new set of abs. I wanted to go to the bathroom during the headliner's act (Rob Little) but he was so funny I just made up my mind to sit through it and wait. By the time he was finished Pam and I were sprinting down to the bathroom.

After the show Josh and Krista went home but Pam, Chris, his friends and I all headed back to the Waffle House up the road from where J and I live and had some food. They must think Pam and I are nuts because we were definitely feeling our three Malibus and single toast shot by then. I know I'm going to feel it when I lie down but I'm going to fight it off because I want to be on base by 5:15am to bring breakfast for J. He has a physical pre-exam I suppose you could call it at 7am and I know he's going to need food to be able to manage it. So it's off to bed!!

Rainy Days

It's been raining and storming since Sunday night so it's quite gray and bleak outside at the moment. Yesterday I got fed up of not hearing from anybody and went up to LSUS myself. Turns out that the deadline for international students and for the graduate school was *drum roll* yesterday. I felt so crushed. The director of admissions said that I could rush and hand in some of the documentation so that I could start classes in the spring. But then I'd be a non-matriculating student and not enrolled in a masters degree program. So J and I talked about it and I've decided to work towards the March 4 deadline for the summer term. I am really disappointed but I guess it's all for the best, with more time I can put together a better application. And hey, I will only pay the in-state tuition so that makes it all worthwhile.

Other than that we were out in the rain all afternoon yesterday working on both our cars. In short we had to switch over various suspension parts from Jason's crashed car to his car and then from his car to my car. After that we put on our new rims!!!! I'm SO happy! Now I really want to paint my car all one color because this tri-colored business is ids graceful with nice rims. Even if Josh does tease me that they're Honda Mugen rims and my car is confused because it's a Nissan. The really good thing is that now for some reason I feel like I have som power steering back. I suspect that it might be because they're now 17s and not 15s but it was probably just because everything's wet and so less grip with the tires.

Anyway, time to go watch Intial D stage 4!

Thank God it's Saturday

Wow, this has been one helluva busy week! Even with J at work yesterday I was still running around for the better part of the day. I actually woke up at 6am and went to work with him - for which he was happy because he got to sleep in the car while I drove. I needed to fill a prescription at the base clinic, which opens at 7:30am so I just went along and read a book in a back room until they opened. I was in and out like a flash, no waiting, nothing. I think I'll always go early when I have prescriptions to fill there.

Thursday was just nuts. We went to the shop to try and pull the back left rotor off J's crashed car since mine broke in two, yes I'm not kidding, the wheel has been dragging for ages. Now while that means I've only had three working brakes and only one tire pushing my RWD car I have been able to do the most amazing drifts for a car with no LSD. But sadly that's no more because the new rotor is fitted on the car, no more sliding for now unless I really put my mind to it. We had to use a big flat head screwdriver looking power tool to cut off the panel behind the door just to get the tire out. (The reason that car is hitched up down at the shop is because it was totalled when someone rearended it.) We also took off the aftermarket struts and springs. The plan is for J to put them on his car and I'll get his Intrac suspension setup. I was filthy by the time we left. I feel off a car I was trying to climb over and banged up my knee and I also sliced my arm a bit on some jagged metal from where we had to cut away. Sometimes I really do with I was stronger then I could pull most of these nuts and bolts off myself!

Wednesday was just as bad. J and I spent most of the day hauling around 2 sets of rims and 8 tires in Luan's truck - he's Pam's boyfriend - and boy was I exhausted after that. At one point while we were waiting on the tires to be mounted on the rims and then I balanced I gave up and went to sit in the air conditioning in the truck :-) Besides it has a CD player and since the one in my car is still busted, hey I had to take advantage of it for the short time we had the truck.

Interspersed with all of that I've been playing the Sims 2 as usual. Now I've figured out how you can check out my sims page and see what I've been up to: http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/mysimpage.php?user_id=115821

Tonight we're going to try to go to the state fair. Last night J and I went to see "Saw" with the Shift_ Sideways gang. That movie was so harrowing it gave me a headache! I had to snatch two Advil from the bathroom afterwards before we went cruising. So I definitely need some moderate excitement tonight LOL

Sim Accomplishments

Well today has been a busy day in Simsville. It's a pity that I can't make a link to my page over at TheSims2.com because then you could actually see what I've been doing with the various neighborhoods. Anyway, day before yesterday I'd made the Miller family. Cooper, the grandfather with a hunger for knowledge, his son Jacob, a knowledge buff as well, Jacob's wife Peaches, regular home-maker and their teenager daughter Julie who's intent on being Ms. Popularity.

Well the Miller's had a gardner named Meredith and before I realized what was happening, Cooper had romanced her and she was hanging out after work everytime she came over to do the lawns. So I said what the hell, and got them into bed together. And now they're married. Since Meredith and Peaches' is on her third child I figured I'd move grandpa out into his own house. And that's what I spent most of the day building :-)

On the school front, I still haven't heard back from the director of the MA program at LSUS with news about what immigration status I'd have to be in. I just hope that I won't have to pay that out of state tuition fee, $4000+ may not seem like alot to some but it's only J and myself to foot the bills and deal with life. So I do pray I get the in state tuition because that'll be the only way I can afford to do a masters. The way I see it, I got my BA without going into debt, no sense starting now.

Dishwashers etc

The dishwasher is such a fabulous invention. Normally just wash all the dishes when I wake up and stick them in the dishwasher to dry since it saves space not having a drainer on the counter. J and I don't generate that much dirty stuff, especially when he's off working days but yesterday I cooked lunch and dinner and we had our neighbors over for some Jamaican food. Loooots of pots and pans and dishes, so I just rinsed them off and chucked 'em in the dishwasher. I mean it comes free with the apartment so why not? :-P

In other news, I'm seriously considering applying to LSUS to start my MA this spring. I'd do an MA in liberal arts and the good news is that I don't have to take the GRE to apply. When the director of the MA program called me back with that good news I nearly leapt to the ceiling with joy (1. because it's so expensive to take the general GRE much less a subject test, 2. that'd be some hard core studying to get everything in before Dec 11 and 3. I never do very well on standardized tests especially multiple choice tests)

Now I just need to call to find out which visa I need, if I need one at all. I hope not because instate tuition is SO much cheaper!!! *crossing fingers*

Blasted hormones

If you're a girl you'll know exactly what I mean. That one weel before the actual hell begins where you feel that the least infraction could diminish you to tears or make you scream your head off and you just feel quite unstable. That and you feel the urge to eat, and eat, and eat... good God I've been eating since 5:30pm!!!! I think I'm just going to take myself off to bed now so that this madness can stop... at least for today.

[Enter subject here]

I'm bad with making up headlines or subjects so I'll leave that tag up there for now. Just woke up awhile ago, have my tea in front of me and I'm going through the email motions and seeing what's happening in Jamaica. God Bless the internet for that else I'd be so behind. Unlike my best friend in New York, who can tune into a Jamaican television station I have to catch my news on websites like the Jamaica Observer or the Jamaica Gleaner.

Jennifer and Tony's wedding was beautiful. The church was ablaze with many candles and it set quiet a romantic mode when they turned off the church lights. The ceremony was short and sweet with a liturgical dance and songs sung by various members of the wedding couple's respective families. I sat on the bride's side and her family is so nice. I didn't really know anyone there but everyone started chatting with me and telling me family anecdotes, it was quite nice. I nearly lost it when they pointed out Jennifer's mother though. And during the procession when she was ushered in to take her seat it was all I could do not to bawl. Moments like that really bring it home to me that my own Mommy's gone and that even if J and I renew our vows 10,000 times she'll never be there to watch. I didn't cry though. I feel quite proud too, especially since nobody in my pew had any tissue it would've been disasterous.

After the ceremony I offered to help carry the flowers from the church to the reception (which reminds me that I now need to vaccuum my back seat) and so I raced on base to drop them off because I also had to go home to pick up clothes for J and take them on base to him at work. He cleans up so nicely that I love when we have an opportunity to get dressed up and go out even if we didn't stay very long at the reception. Thank goodness we got to the NCO club when we did because we barely managed to catch the last of the food!

I guess on one hand I was a bit down because J and I didn't have an elaborate wedding ceremony. (We got married at the house of the JP with our two friends as witnesses.) But the longer I've thought about it the happier I am that we got hitched that way. It suited us more. I thought about how people were trying to sneak into the church during the wedding procession and I think if that happened to me I may have just fainted, pitched a fit or just broke down bawling. Besides that, Jamaican wedding receptions are notoriously LONG. And God bless Jennifer and Tony's bridal party because their toasts were all short and sweet and no other family members wanted the microphone. Jamaican wedding toasts? Everybody has something to say and it's usually embarassing stories from your past or lewd jokes. In the end I'm glad we escaped that!

So congratulations Mr. & Mrs. A Burts, Jr. welcome to wonderful wedded world :-)

Back home again

I'm home again. I braved the mall and found a nice inside top to go with my black pants and jacket. So clothing wise I'm good to go. Grabbed some Subway for J and I for lunch then ran on base cause we works this weekend *bleh* I forgot the shirt at ambulance services and had to turn around when I was halfway off base. The one way system confused me and I ended up turning off somewhere that was really just a drop off point, all this with FOUR motorbike cops behind me. I wanted to wilt away in the seat. Anyway, I'm here now with my lovely shirt (and belt to match, I'm nuts I know :) Time for Sims before it's back to the mall again for the people at the hairdressers to try and tame my wild cane trash called hair...

Back Home... Closet Rummage Time

Just got back home. Did some domestic stuff. Yesterday I'd bought some hanging plants for the back balcony and some yellow mums and two green garden stands for out front, so I checked whether they needed more water and put some plant food into their pots.

Now it's time to go and find clothes! Today is My friend Jennifer's wedding and I still don't quite know what I'm going to wear. I've deliberately not run to the mall because I guess I should see if there's anything in my closet first :-) Hopefully there is because Saturday's is always a mad house at St. Vincent. The only place that might be worse is Wal-mart. I made the mistake of going grocery shopping there one Saturday afternoon. I nearly got run over by three seperate people and the lines were hideously long. Not that I could find food there to buy. Middle of the week for me, wait but not Wednesdays cause every other week that's military pay day I think and that's just as bad.

Anyway, I'm off to rummage in the closet. *crossing fingers*

Schiphol Taxi Service Reincarnated

I might not be in the Netherlands anymore but that doesn't mean I can't do airport runs! Not to Schiphol of course, that'd be a helluva drive but to SHV one of the airports here in the Shreveport Bossier City area. I'm dropping Pam off so that she can fly to FLorida to go get her baby girl Cheyenne. The only difference between back in Utrecht and now is that I have to go and pick Pam up on base. No more, 'Meet me at the car,' or parking the car outside if we were going to leave before the school gates opened.

My most memorable drive would have to be taking ama to the airport to go to Spain for her semester on exchange after having partied the whole night at UCU's Big Lustrum bash downtown at the Stairway to Heaven. Ahh but now it's after 8:30 and it's a long drive over to the east side so I better go...

The Strain of the Eye Doctor Appointment

You know how some people hate going to the dentist like it's poison? To the point where they know something's wrong but refuse to go until their teeth are almost falling out. My Moms was like that, God rest her soul. The blood would drain from her face just seeing the dentist's sign much less the ordeal it was when she actually had to go. Well this is exactly how I feel about the optometrist. I intensely dislike going and the only reason I keep to going regularly is because I dearly love being able to see and if I lost my sight then I wouldn't be able to drive and in general life would just become much harder than it already is.

So I had an appointment for 10AM. Unlike the store I went to while I was in Holland you had a pre-screening before you actually got to see the doctor. So twice the embarassment. Why does going to the optometrist embarass me? Well even with my contact lenses in I could only see down to the third line on the chart, bearing in mind that the first line is that big 'E'. With my left eye? All the way down the chart with a bit of squinting to get the last two lines right. Now I knew this place was hardcore cause out came the contact lenses. If I was anymore light skinned the girl would've seen me trun beet red because as I sat down at the two screening machines (which were much closer that where I'd stood originally read the chart) I couldn't even see the bloody 'E' with my right eye. Two more tests and then back into the waiting room to sit tight till the doctor was ready.

I'd deliberately starved myself this morning, no breakfast, no tea, nothing. By the time I got into I was finally seen by the doctor so my stomach was behaving quite badly and I'm not sure if it was the mortification of my stomach grumbling loudly or the obvious shock on the doctor's face that had me wanting to sink into the floor.

But for the first time in my life I know why my right eye's vision is so bad and doesn't react much to corrective lenses. Apparently the back of my eye isn't curved properly it pokes out just a bit stretching the nerves.

I still felt depressed when I left (-5.25 left and -10.00 right is a high prescription) but at least now I know where I stand. And that's always good to know. Well off to the Sims 2 :-)

First times...

Okay this post isn't going to be long because I'm itiching to go and play the Sims 2. If you don't have it yet, you must get it. The Sims are so much more sensible this time around and there's a host of new stuff that you can do! Hmmm I think I'll get some food first because my stomach's starting to protest.

Anyway, this is going to be a continuation of the Say What section that I had on my geocities website way back, well before I went to college. I still have the html versions of those pages on my harddrive. Maybe one day I'll upload them and create an archive of sorts.

WLU Homecoming 2004

Now the question is, should I? or shouldn't I? You know how sometimes you really want to go somewhere but you absolutely don't want to go by yourself? The chances of Jas getting time off work for now are a big fat zero so it'd be me one probably driving up there cause there's no way in hell I'm paying $419 for a plane ticket (unless someone wants to sponsor me one *grin*)

Well we'll see I suppose. My curiousity to see Lexington again may just override everything else... :) and hey if you're going drop me a line!

WLU Homecoming 2004

Now the question is, should I? or shouldn't I? You know how sometimes you really want to go somewhere but you absolutely don't want to go by yourself? The chances of Jas getting time off work for now are a big fat zero so it'd be me one probably driving up there cause there's no way in hell I'm paying $419 for a plane ticket (unless someone wants to sponsor me one *grin*)

Well we'll see I suppose. My curiousity to see Lexington again may just override everything else... :) and hey if you're going drop me a line!

...

Not going to Homecoming... I'll probably just go visit my old professors when things aren't so hectic there.

Worried about my family and friends in Jamaica. Can't believe Ivan got Jamaica plastered all over CNN. Jas and I were at Applebees eating dinner and there it was, Mall Pharmacy being boarded up by shirtless men all over the screens by the bar.

Other than that, just biding my time till The Sims 2 release next Wednesday by playing the hell outta The Sims Bustin Out for PS2. Just biding my time...

The Sims 2

I've found my latest addiction. Call me lame if you want but I'd reserved my copy since June and I was at the mall about 30mins after it opened to get my copy of the game and the strategy guide. I think this is the only Sims game I've ever bought in a store (the only other one I've ever bought is the Superstar expansion pack but that was Ebay).

Here I was thinking that my PC ran fairly fast... yeah, that was till I installed the damn game. If I hadn't dashed out to Circuit City last week and gotten a new HD then installing it wouldn't even have been possible. (I tell you game developers and PC manufacturers are in league with each other to FORCE us to upgrade our machines!) The game takes so long to install they have a mini flash game that you can play while you wait.

But it's worth it... so while Jas works this weekend, I'll vegetate in front my PC *grin* Well maybe not, there's an autocross event on Sunday so if my neighbour will let me drive his Mini S in the event I'll go rags that out and see if I can win another novice trophy :D

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. J


Yes, this is a backdated entry but I couldn't resist. On this day, at this time Mr J was joined to me, Miss Kim in holy matrimony in a small Justice of the Peace ceremony at Bossier City, Louisiana.


Of course you know this is a backdated blog, there's no way I would've been on the net on my wedding day! LOL