With English Goodness!!

Still having "issues" with the clothes washer. It vibrated out again into the Kitchen. If I sit on the thing, it doens't vibrate nearly as much. So I just sit on it while playing Nintendo (A little Double Dribble) and not a big deal right? I think there's a laundromat close by that I may just say screw it, do my laundry on the weekends in 2 batches (1 white, 1 color) where I can do bigger loads (this little thing only has room for couple shirts and couple socks at a time. Remember, I'm used to doing laundry every 2 weeks back in the US. But I'll figure something out.

My cable guy came tonight. I was told "between 7pm and 9pm" which was a surprise considering usually Charter gives you the "between Monday and Friday" time frame. Sure enough, he showed up at 7pm. Was out the door by 7:10pm. He even put the menu into English for me! So now I have an extra 5 channels or so that are HBO and are in English. I like to watch movies, or at least have English speaking movies in the background. The bad part is I have to switch between the cable box (HBO and a few others... including some music channels) to the coax to get all the rest (including the sports channels). Oh well - for $7 a month, I can figure it out.

In fact - as I type this (sitting on my washing machine since I have wireless setup), I see that Karate Kid 2 is "on next" with my new HBO channel. Seriously - picture me sitting on top of my washing machine, typing away, with Ralph Machio coming on next. I have to wait till the spin cycle is complete before I go get a beer.

It's been a busy, yet productive week at work. I'm finally able to manage two different e-mail addresses (and inboxes) to a point of comfortability. I'm feeling much more situated (at work and at home) now that I'm wrapping up my 4th week here. I'm even practicing writing my Chinese name (see to the right above my picture... it literally says "My Name Is" (first two characters) "Di-Ai-Den" (next 3 characters... that's my chinese name). Takes me about 2 minutes to write out, but I'm working on it.

I finally watched the Top 4 for American Idol. Glad to see Jason go home after a mediocre night. I didn't think he was horrific, but definitely bad week for a Top 4 performance. I like seeing Siyesha in the Top 3 as I think she is deserving. I have a feeling it will come down to the two Davids though. All 3 will record an album so declaring a "winner" is pretty much unnecessary.

An interesting set of results (and discussions that have followed) regarding Tuesday's Democratic results. Barring a disaster, looks like Obama is in the driver's seat to the White House;) I like to think so.... thought that for a year or so now it seems.

And because I know you're still thinking about the Karate Kid....



Time for bed - my 2nd load is complete. If I do another load of laundry, my butt will get even more numb from sitting on this thing while it's shaking so bad!