Below are the 18 most recent journal entries recorded in king_putput's LiveJournal:

Saturday, November 11th, 2006
12:31 am	Life after Lowlands Hehe....Lowlands was cool. Oh well, time to stop looking back and start looking at present and future. In the (very long) mean time I've been working behind the desk at the Jersey34 Tennisclub, taking care of 90% of the racket stringing and getting a nice extra couple of hours substituting for other pros. One of our pros went to visit family in Russia and wanted me to take over his lessons while he was gone. If I was interested to do that for him.... Ehm....lemme think....YES! Everything went very well and the owners of the club (Judy and Kathy) actually got some very positive feedback from customers about my lessons. Supercool. I was happy to hear that, of course. It's always a nice confindence boost to hear that your work was well received by the customers. A few days ago I even had a evaluation with Judy and Kathy. You know....a conversation to see how satisfied both me and them are about my work so far. Well, I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far....as far as everybody knows that my final goal is to be a fulltime pro. Of course, I know very well that that won't happen just like that and that I'll have to, gradually, build up my own group of customers. And that probably I'll have to wait for one of the other pros leaves or reduces hours. It'll be what it'll be. I don't know if I told you guys yet....but....ehm....I HAVE MY DRIVERS LICENCE!!! :D hehehe I've been driving a lot, especially now that Tara's parents let me borrow their second car. No major accidents yet....so all is good hehe. Other than all this, I've turned 29 last monday. Bleh....one step closer to 30. I think I'll start getting younger after I reach 30 and go back and forth between 25 and 30 fot the rest of my life....hmm....doesn't sound too bad, eh? :-P Oh well....see ya all next time. Cheerio! Emile Current Mood: cheerful (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, September 15th, 2006
11:38 pm	Back in the USA :) Indeed. Back in the USA. I'm sorry it's been so long. Again.... Since the last post, I've visited my family and friends in Holland. YAY! That was supercool. It was strange how quickly everything felt 'normal' again. And equally strange how 'normal' things felt after coming back here. It really feels like I have two homes now....lucky me! :) I took Tara to see the Delts Blue pottery plant/museum thingy. That was pretty cool. I remember going therewhen I was young, but didn't remamber any details. Not so strange since I think I was 5 years old when I last visited that place.....oh my god....I just realised that that's 23 years ago. I'm SO OLD! BAH! Oh well....nothing a couple of beers can't fix....at least temporarily :) hehehe Usually till the next morning. Speaking of beer....LOWLANDS! Hehe....that was fun. Had a great time! Thnx Menno and Jorg! Same time, same place next year? Playing tennis, darts, drinking with the friends. Dinners with the family. Introducing Tara to my grandma (after being married a year hehehe, the traditional way hehe) and to little Kez. That last one was more fun than the first, to be honest. Nothing like a babbling and drooling little girl to make grown-ups laugh their asses off. Of course there were the other new youngsters too....Darius, Dillan and of course little Elyse. So many little children....I really hope it's not contageous ;-P At least....not yet. Back home, here in New Jersey, I've started work behind the desk at the Jersey 35 Tennisclub. It's a little chaotic, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I've been stringing a lot of rackets to earn some extra money, so it's slowly getting there. I've got 2 hrs of lessons per week....unfortunately it's on saturday morning from 7:30-8:30 and sunday morning from 7-8. Other than that, I'm working thursday through sunday from about 1 to 10:30, so that's between 36 and 40 hrs a week. It'll do nicely till I get my own lessons and stuff like that. Soon we'll be looking for a second, smaller car. Something a little more fuel-efficient than our Buick with her 3.8L V6 engine. I love driving it though hehehe.....vroom vroom! :) Oh well....time for us to go to sleep. Early day tomorrow. Take care everyone, love you and till the next update! :) Emile Current Mood: okay (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
11:45 pm	Going on vacation to Holland.....who would have ever thought I'd be doing that.....:-) But I am :-) Tara called me at work to let me know she booked the tickets! SUPER-YAY! We're taking off here on monday, august 14th, and arriving in Holland on the 15th between 8:00 and 8:30 in the morning. It'll be fun and weird to see all those people again after a year. I'm afraid that it'll take a lot of beer before we're properly greeted by all our Dutch friends and relatives. Oh well....such a hardship, huh. It's hardly any fun, but I'll manage. :-) I can't wait! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! Oh.....and I aaaaaaaalmost forgot.....I'm gonna go to Holland! I'm gonna go to Holland! MWUAHA.... Love ya :-) C ya soon! Emile Current Mood: happy (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 15th, 2006
6:57 am	ATTENTION ATTENTION!! WORKING MAN COMING THROUGH!! Hehehe.... So I've been working for 1.5 weeks now and things are slowly getting better there. I'm getting more familiar with the store and learning more about the animals we sell every day. I'm still not touching the tarantulas though....no way in hell am I going near those. Snakes same thing. The manager let me know that she raised my starting salary by 25 cents. Oh well....if you INSIST.:-) If you REALLY twist my arm, I'm sure you can get me to accept another raise or two....but you'll have to work for it ;-P One downside, however, is that I'm working mainly evening shifts at the moment. That really sucks cause some days I don't get to see my sweetie between her going to work in the morning....and me returning from work late at night. I'm not really in a position to bitch about it yet, so we can only hope that I'll be able to move to day-shifts very soon. Other than that, life's peachy. Tara signed me up for that tennis session. It'll be my birthday and xmas present for this year. Very cool :-) Not that I haven't been playing tennis with Tara, and with great success I might add cause she's starting to play pretty damn good for someone who only started playing regularly 3 months ago, but it's good for me to see on what level I'm able to play here. Plus it'll hopefully give me a chance to get back in my 'rhythm'. The third reason is that I dropped my name as a tennis instructor at that club, so they'll be able to check me out and see what I can do while I practise. Hopefully it all works out. We're also getting ready to book a flight to Holland for august! SUPER-yay! I'll be able to get a week or 2 off from work so that we'll be able to visit my friends and family and, if all goes well, go to the Lowlands music festival (www.lowlands.nl....we can really recommend it, right hun? hehe). So....I'll be updating again soon! Take care and c ya all laters :-) Emile Current Mood: calm (Comment on this)
Friday, June 2nd, 2006
6:22 pm	Finally Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Today it finally happened. All the stars and planets lined up right, all the evil spirits were distracted and there was only good karma. I FOUND A JOB! Yup. That pet place I talked about in a previous post, Petco, decided that they were interested enough to offer me a job. So I'll be starting next monday evening and working parttime (26-30 hrs/week) for the first 2 or 3 weeks and then fulltime. At a first glance they appear to have a very flexible and casual atmosphere and treat eachother with respect and humor. So I'll do my best to fit in and be a good boy :-) Too bad they probably won't drink a beer after work, but I guess I'll just have to try to manage without hehehe. ;-) Now, first thing for me to get is gonna be my drivers licence. I've also found a tennishall that offers a series of 10, 2 hr training sessions for a reasonable price. So I'm definately considering signing up for that....especially since the new training season starts in september, so I'll be back in play by the time I may need to prove myself to a bunch of tennis instructors :-) We may even get Tara to sign up for a series of lessons too hehe....we'll see. Lots of love! C ya all laters Emile (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
11:52 am	bla bla bla bla Righto....we're back :-) Monday has passed without a call from Friday's. Not completely unexpected. Tuesday passed without a call from either Friday's or Petco. Not completely unexpected. (See a pattern here anyone?) Ok ok....it's not entirely true. Tuesday night, around 9:45pm (21:45 voor de mensjes in Holland) Fridays called. They had been SO busy on monday that they couldn't manage a 2 minute phonecall. Ok....if you say so. But they would like to see me for a second interview this friday (Funny....Friday's want me for an onterview on FRIDAY. I know...it's lame but I HAD to say it.) Then, earlier on tuesday....BJ's called. BJ's is a wholesale club. Kinda like a giant supermarket (soort van Macro voor de mensjes in Holland). They called me for an interview on thursday. Well....I'm just gonna go see what they want and what they offer. So far, Petco still has the best offer, but I'll wait and see what BJ's has to say. Assuming I'm not getting any other interview invitations from other places, I should have a job somewhere next week :-) YAY! Money! hehehe.... Last night, Tigger (our big red cat) decided to give us a good scare. Aparently he'd been swallowing his dry food (z'n kattebrokjes) whole and his stomach didn't like that so it sent the food back where it came from. At that point, of course, Tigger started to puke. However, after the first load something appeared to be bothering him. He went nuts, jumping into the wall and then crashing into the floor while his tail and limbs wheeled around spastically. I had only such behaviour once before, and that was with one of the cats at Tara's parents' house who was very ill. I called Tara and she saw instantly that Tigger's airway was blocked and that he was choking. Thankfully she knew what to do (cause I froze up, not knowing what to do) and managed to open his mouth to help get the blocking pieces out of his throat. If it wasn't for her, my little red guy would have been dead. He sat on her lap for a few minutes, shaking and scared....which was to be expected. But then he just jumped off and went off like nothing happened and nothing was wrong. I'm just so glad he's ok. :-) My Tara saved the day. YAY! Well....that's been my life for the last couple of days. C ya laters :-) Emile Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 28th, 2006
11:44 am	Yes, we're still here :-) It appears I've been a bit lazy when it comes to my LiveJournal updates. I'm going to makw a real effort to update it multiple times per week. Well....I'm going to TRY to make an effort. I'm pretty sure I can try to make an effort....hehehe :-) Since my last update, my bro's been here for a week. It was great. Easter Sunday we spent the day at T' parents' house. BBQ steak! WOOHOO! Yummy! :-) Thamkfully, the weather was very nice the entire week and we took him to see some cool (touristic) stuff. We went to SixFlags twice, since we got a few free tickets with out season passes to bring 'a friend' :-) They had a new rollercoaster this year (I forgot the name, but you can easily look that up) and it was awesome! It went so fast, it made your face feel like blubber and tears streamed from my eyes because of the wind hehehe. YAAAAAY! I love coasters :-) Unfortunately, and more or less according to expectation, they hadn't finished their second new coaster yet. It's supposed to be the largest wooden rollercoaster in the world....when it's finished of course. I believe they said it would be ready for the opening of the new season, but for some strange reason I wasn't completely surprised when it wasn't done yet. Intuition? I dunno....:-) We also took my little bro to NY. It would be unforgivable if he came to us in NJ and we didn't take him to see the Big Apple (= New York City, for those special few who were wondering what's so special about american fruit that you HAVE to see it). In fact, we got to go to the top of the Empire State Building :-) Something even Tara and Sammy (T's sister) had never done before. It was pretty cool and we had nice weather with almost cloudless sky :-) Of course, Maurice's highlight of the week was when we took him to Atlantic City for a day. That lucky shithead went to play on the slotmachines and accidentally pushed a wrong button....and the machine suddenly exploded in music and lot of lights. Yeah, my little brother won over $1300 by hitting the wrong button....and of course I'm happy for him....I would have been happier if it had happened to me though :-P The rest of the week was nice a relaxed. We went to see Ice Age 2, went out to dinner a couple of times and played tennis. We had Chris and Sammy come over one night to play a drinking variety of MarioParty on the GameCube. It's a fun little family game to which we added a couple of rules that include a lot of alcohol consumption (Who would have guessed heheh) :-) And then my bro went home and I had to get my ass in gear. Yes....I actually (finally) could start looking for jobs. So in the 3 weeks after Mauricew left, I applied to 12 to 15 different stores, supermarkets and restaurants within walking distance. Of course, none of them ever called back, so I followed T's advice and called them myself. In 90% of the cases, I got the typical "we're running behind on applications at the moment and we're still working on it. If you just give me your name and phonenumber, I'll get back to you tomorrow." Of course, the next few days would pass without any calls. I must be the most naive person in the world, to believe people that say they'll call back to actually call back. Hehe....Tara, and her parents, explained that things usually are a little different over here compared to what I'm used to. So I'll just have to do my best to adjust. Finally, after applying at an electronics store called Radioshack, I got invited to a introduction meeting. Together with 10 other applicants we got a presentation about who, what, where and how when working for Radioshack. After that, every single applicant got called in for a short interview with the District Manager. I thought that that interview went pretty good and they told me that they would give me a call, whether I was chosen for a second interview or not. Well....it all sounded pretty good and, as far as I could tell, they seemed interested. This interview, however, was the only reply I had gotten from all of the places I applied to. That was pretty discouraging, and it suddenly appeared to me that it might be a lot more difficult to get a job here than I thought. And I didn't really think it would be easy to start with. Oh well, all we can do is keep trying and keep calling. So I did....multiple times to most of the stores. And every time they would politely promise to look into it and call me back. Yeah....heard that before lol Then, one evening when T and I took her parents out to a sushi restaurant, I got a phonecall. At first I was annoyed, because I had it set for full volume forgot to lower it. Then I looked at the number and I didn't recognise it. I was about to ignore it and wait till we finished dinner before calling them back. Tara, however, immediately said "It's probably one of the places you applied to. I'd answer it if I were you." I still think it's kinda rude to be calling on your cellphone while eating dinner in a restaurant, but they all told me to take the call. Ok.... It was Friday's. A restaurant nearby, where we took Maurice to. And I believe I took Maurice, Lucien and Dennis there too last summer. Anyway, they asked if I was still looking for a job and if I could come in for an interview. Ehm....SURE! So the next day I went there and talked to the 'waiting manager'. They needed a waiter for daytime on weekdays. Well....that soudned perfect, since that would allow me to be home when Tara's home. GREAT. They would pay me $2.15 per hour plus tips. It would avarage out at about $6.50 per hour and they would train me and everything. He was very interested in hiring me, but had to discuss it with the other managers and would then call me back for a second interview. It's not the best job in the world, but since it was the only job offer I'd gotten so far. At first, I was kinda concerned about signing a contract and working for them. Because what could I do if, after accepting the offer from Friday's, one of the other places called me and had a better offer? Well....according to Tara and her parents that's no problem at all. The way it is over here, is that if ou get a better offer you simply accept and quit your current job. There isn't really any job security here. The employer and the employee can both immediately cancel the contract whenever they feel like it. Ok.... The interview with Friday's was last thursday and he told me he would call me back by monday at the latest, depending on when he could meet with all the other managers. Fine by me :-) Then....last friday I was doing laundry at Tara's parents house, when I got a call from Petco (a large pet and petfood store) who would like to see me for an interview. COOL! So saturday morning I went there and had a nice talk. The manager appeared to be very interested, especially in my experience in the supermarket business. For now, she was hiring someone to stock the store (vakkenvullen) and to take care of the storeroom and she offered me a starting pay of $8.50 per hour. However, she also mentioned that in the very near future, she'll be looking to replace someone in a position with more responsibilities and she made it clear that she was considering me for that spot, depending on how well I did in the mean time. She had 2 other interviews, and she would call me back on tuesday. This'll get interesting. I'm more likely to choose for Petco, since they'll pay me a fixed rate instead of the variable pay at Friday's. Plus the job itself is a step closer to what I'm used to. I onlu made it clear that I won't be feeding any pet spiders or lizards....VERY clear. :-) So yeah....that's what's been going on for here. I'm expecting a call from Friday's on monday and a call from Petco on tuesday....and then we'll see what's going to happen. I'm kinda excited and looking foreward to starting work. We'll see how it goes :-) Love you all and miss you :-) Hopefully will see you during the summer :-) Emile Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Monday, March 20th, 2006
7:31 pm	Slowly, all the pieces of the puzzle comes together Hello everybody :-) Another quick update, I really wonder if anyone even reads all this crap. Ok....I already told you that I received my Green Card (residency and work permit) recently. Well, last wednesday (too lazy to look up the exact date) Tara took me to the Social Security Administration to file for a social security number (sofi-nummer). They told me that everything was in order and that it would take them between 7 and 10 work days to process everything and send me the card. But lo, and behold, today I found a letter from the SSA in the mail. And indeed....it contained my soc. sec. card!! WOOHOO!! For those who don't know what this means for me....I need my soc. sec. number for almost everything here. To apply for jobs, sign up for driving lessons and my drivers licence, to open a bankaccount....in short, I need it for all the things I have to do to get my (professional) life started over here in the US. I can now start doing all those things! And mid-april my bro, Maurice, is coming over. Emile getting happier and happier hehehe.... Oh well, I just wanted to let you guys know about the latest developments. Lots of love, take care and till the next update :-) Emile Current Mood: cheerful (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 10th, 2006
12:52 pm	From yay to SUPER-yay! Howdy-doo-dee my loyal friends and readers! Lemme give you another update about the last couple of weeks....it's about time, plus you've earned it hehe. For 2 weeks after my last update nothing interesting happenend. But then came the weekend of february 25th and 26th :) Tara and I, together with Tara's sister Sammy and her husband Chris, went to Atlantic City for the weekend. It was just a fun trip to get away from daily life and T and me considered it a mini-honeymoon. For those of you who've never heard of AC....Atlantic City is a smaller, and less glamourous version of Las Vegas, only on the east coast of the US. We were leaving on friday the 24th and, since Tara was at work all day, I basically packed our bag and some little stuff to prepare for the trip. We didn't know that we were about to get a little surprise in the mail. Friday afternoon I checked the mail and, to my surprise, found a letter from the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. They sent me my WORKPERMIT! YAAAAY!! I couldn't have hoped for a better start of the weekend. I only hoped that they had automatically added a social security number (sofi-nummer), but aparently I am able to apply for one with my work permit, so that's all good. We only have to find a day where Tara's out of school early enough to make it to the Soc. Sec. Office, since they close at 4pm (16:00) on weekdays and aren't open during the weekend. Should only be a couple more weeks....YAY! Full of happiness and good luck, we went off to AC. The hotel was decent. We shared a room with Sammy and Chris to save some expenses. It all worked out just fine :) Since I've never really been to a casino before, it was all new and amazing to me. Which, I think, is the reason I was lucky. Beginner's luck. I spent a lot of time on Pai Gow poker tables. It's a cool version of poker where you play against the dealer and you draw about 50% of all hands. In other words, you usually get to play a (relatively) long time for a limited amount of money. And since we (still) don't have unlimited financial means....yeah, we played that a lot :) Tara and I each took $500 with us for gambling, food and all other expenses. Basically, we figured $200 per day pus another $100 for emergencies. The first thing we did when we arrived....well, technically the first thing we did was park the car. Duh. Then we checked in, tossed our bags in our room and went out to grab a bite to eat and on to the casinos hehehe. When we got back to our room, it was about 2:30 in the morning....and I had $275 more than when I arrived :) Tara lost some of her money, and Sammy and Chris lost all their cash for that day. Saturday was cool...we went to a big carshow/car-auction. All kinds of cars were displayed there. From the normal Jaguars and GM cars and stuff, to the more exotic Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. A lot of custom built, or adjusted cars and hotrods with engines popping out through the hood and tires wide enough for Formula 1 racecars. And of course, my dreamcar was there. In a nice, dark green metallic....a '68 Dodge Charger complete with a huge Hemi and everything. It was awesome. Too bad I wasn't the ony one who loved that car....I could hardly reach it to see anything :) After the carshow, we went back to eat and gamble. Fun fun fun! I started the day losing $100 before we went to get some dinner. For some reason my luck didn't work during day-time, cause after dinner I won back the hundred bucks I lost, plus another 100 or so. Tara ended up winning $50 or so and Sam and Chris, unfortunately, lost all their money again. For some reason they didn't really seem to enjoy that fact much....:P Sunday we spent another couple of hours in the casino, and I managed to lose $200, before we got in the car and went home. I was happy....even with the money I lost sunday, I still made a small profit. Hey....what more can you want? ;) The very next monday Tara and I had our Adjustent Of Status (AOS) interview. That interview would be the last step in the process of turning my visa into a permanent residency permit (verblijfsvergunning). We arrived there about an hour early and I was kinda hoping that they were on schedule. Cause if everything went smoothly, we could make a quick stop at the Soc. Sec. office and apply for a soc. sec. number. I think I spent all my luck in AC. It was pretty crowded, and when it was getting close to our scheduled time (1:30pm/13:30) we heard that they were just finishing the people that had been scheduled for 10:00am/10:00. Juuuuuuuuuust great. I love the government. At about 4:00pm/16:00 our name was called and we could (finally) enter. The guy in the office just kept firing questions at Tara and collecting all kinds of paperwork from us, evidence we had to bring to show that we indeed had been living together, etc etc. After that, to my big surprise, he took my work permit and stapled it in the file folder he had made with all our stuff. I thought I was going crazy....MY WORK PERMIT! I need that to apply for a soc. sec. number! You bastard! Give that back! Of course, I didn't say all that out loud. I'm not THAT stupid....usually. We just asked him if I was getting it back soon....and he replied 'no'. Aparently, my residency card would also be my new work permit. That was kinda a relief. On the other hand, I HAD a work permit....now I had nothing again. That was kinda annoying. Plus he said that we should be getting the new card in the mail between 7 and 10 work days. Yeah....GOVERNMENT work days....in other words, somewhere in the next couple of months. At least he DID tell us that we had officially passed the 'test' and that I only had to wait for the card to be sent to me. That was nice to hear. I still missed my work permit though....the bastard. Then....finally....today was the day! I browsed through the mail, and found an envelop addressed to me from a sender that didn't ring a bell. And when I opened it, out popped my shiny new residency card! SUPER-yay!! I am now officially legal in the US and I can now officially apply for a soc. sec. number....after which I can start my driving lessons, get my licence and find a job! :) Emile happy! Anyways....thanks for reading this long and boring little story :) If anyone is actually still reading this besides Tara....:) Lots of love, miss you all and till the next update! Emilio Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 12th, 2006
12:09 pm	Still winter.... Howdy folks :) Yesterday, saturday, was the big day. I got to go to the office of the Immigration an Naturalisation Service in Newark to have my fingerprints taken. Again. This time for my work permit. Like I said before, it surprises me how little the different immigration departments co-operate. But hey....I'm sure the Dutch political bureaucracy isn't much better. Because Tara teaches on saturday mornings, and I was supposed to show up in Newark by 12:00, my father-in-law took me there. We arrived at about 11:00 and decided to go in to try get it all over with. No problems at all, just had to fill in a little form and get in line. Always in line. I HATE waiting in line. If you say SixFlags....I say lines. Postoffice....lines. Supermarket....lines. In a bar getting a drink....lines, but at least THAT's worth waiting for hehehe. Aaaaaaanyways....got in line....to get into the WAITINGroom (Didn't see THAT one coming, did ya. ARG!) and there we had to wait for my number to come up. Didn't take very long and after about 20 minutes I was back outside again. In short....I was done with everything about half an hour before I was supposed to be there. Not bad, don't you think? For dealing with gonverment people , I mean ;) So....I took my driver out to lunch as a 'thank you'. And because I felt like eating a nice big juicy steak for lunch hehehe. Then, later that day....somewhere in the afternoon it started to snow. Lightly. We already heard that we were gonna have snow that night, but aparently nature couldn't wait till everybody was ready. Very rude, if you ask me. So, Tara and me just snuggled on the couch and watched a DVD movie or two and went to bed (hehe). The next morning, I couldn't believe my eyes. Everything was covered in about 50 cm of snow. Now, most people know that I don't like cold, snow and winter in general. I don't like wintersport, aside from the apres-ski. But I'm not gonna pay all that money just to drink alcohol with friends in a snowy country. I can do that at home....and spend the money, that I save by staying home, on extra alcohol! Yay! :) Anyways....this was the most snow I've ever seen. Of course, since it's sunday and Tara probably has to go to work tomorrow, we had to dig out the car. That was actually fun. I've never been up to my knees in snow before. And you know what....it's COLD! Thank god for army boots hehe. So, we spent about an hour digging out our car and clearing the steps to out front door. I know, it's not special or amazing....but I had to tell you guys SOMETHING. :) Aaaaaaaaaalrighty then....I love you all, my friends!! Miss ya and hope to see you all this summer! Ciao! Oh, and here are a couple of the pics I took today.....enjoy :) Emile Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 19th, 2006
8:54 am	He's baaaaaaaaaaaack :-) ALright....:-) Here's a short summary of what's happened in the last few weeks. Nana, Tara's Polish grandma (on mom's side), went to surgery. That was fun.... I assume everyone has one of those grandmas, at least to some extend. Bitter, grumpy, nasty....not to me of course. At least, not to my face. Meh. This all was the 2 weeks before Christmas....right after my last post. Nana went into surgery, the entire family sat there in the waitingroom. It was a serious operation with some risks too. Aparently, Nana waited a long time having this operation ("I don't like hospitals. I'm fine. I don't need surgery", etc etc)....and, according to the doctors, a few weeks more could have been fatal. But what do doctors know, right? Not like they actually try to make people better or anything like that. The operation was successful and everybody was relieved. At least....a little. Because now came the part where everybody was NOT looking foreward to. The recuperation period. Now....at first I didn't know what the family meant when they said that. After a few days however.... She can't say she didn't have a supporting family. She did, but that's besides the point. I believe that, for over 14 hours per day, a family member was there to visit. They came before work, after work, after dinner, after college, etc etc. There was someone there to visit all the time. Tara and I went there about every other day after dinner, or before dinner....whichever was most convenient. We'd usually stay there for about an hour/90 mins and then left to let her get some rest. For the entire stay, however, she would offer us food and drink. Now, just to quickly explain to those unfamiliar with hospitals....the doctors and nurses know which patient got what for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Imagine what would happen if patients started to give away food without the doctors knowing about it. A lot of assumptions would be made on false information, which could lead to....interesting situations. Of course, T and I told Nana that and refused to have any of her stuff. Later I heard that Nana has been offering her food to everybody....constantly, with the excuses that "I don't like pudding", "I don't like their chickensoup", "This macaroni tastes like crap", "I can't eat. Everything I eat, I puke out again." Now THAT was something different. Yes, she kept telling us (AND herself) that she couldn't eat because her stomach would launch it right back out again. And that hurt. Of course, that's not so strange if your body's been on life support (liquid food and water, breathing equipment, etc) for a long long time. But she wouldn't hear about it. It hurt, she couldn't swallow, it sucked. Of course....her pain-medication (which was a pretty big pill, I might add) went down without a problem....Ehhh....oooooooook? Everything got a little better every day and her was told that, if she kept this up, she would be home for Christmas. Of course, she only heard the "home for Christmas" part...not the rest. She did pretty good. Moved aroudn a little bit every day....and then went back to whining. Can't eat. Can't swallow. Can't keep my food down. She went from solid food, back soft foods (soup, pudding, stuff like that) aaaaall the way back to getting her food through a tube in her arm. Of course, the doctors told her that she couldn't leave in this condition and wouldn't be home for Xmas. HA! What the hell do doctors know. I wanna be home for Xmas, so I'M GOING! Yup...that's Nana. Not even able to eat normal food yet, but she's fine and going home. Tara asked me to promise her that, if she ever starts to act like her grandma, I'd shoot her. I promised. Nana went home....well, she spent few weeks at one of T's aunts first. That aunt used to be a nurse. That aunt said that Nana could live with her for a few weeks and helped her sign out of the hospital. Not my idea of a wise decision, but I didn't feel I was in the family long enough to criticise her. The rest of the family aparently shared my opinion though. Not about me having to keep my mouth shut....about the aunt leaving the hospital. But....Nana's will be done. And as soon as she got out, she could (miraculously) eat and drink without problems? Of course nothing but healthy things. Caffinated coffee, cookies, muffins, chocolate, etc etc. Hey, she's recuperating from a long, intense operation. She needs to build up her strength by eating all this healthy food. Strangely enough, Nana's doing just fine now. I would be lying if I said that people had expected this. Christmas was ok. Had a couple of drinks and ate some of the catered food. Talked to a lot of people. Got a lot of presents from T's parents and Sama nd Chris (Thnx again guys!). New Year was fun. Of course it wasn't the big party I'm used to. It's just not as big over here. Tara knows what I'm talking about :) But we had a lot of fun at Sam and Chris'. I made Vodka-jello-shots and we played a couple of drinking games till early in the morning. It was a lot of fun :-) A little after that, we got a letter from the US govetnment. YAY! Finally! Tara and I are invited for an interview on februari 27th. That interview is the last step in the process of turning my visa into a residence permit. And recently, I got a letter for my work permit! Double yay! Guess what I have to do? I have to go to one of their offices in Newark....and have my fingerprints taken.... Now....if you have read all my posts in my Livejournal so far you may have noticed that I've had to do those fingerprints before. For my Residence Permit to be exact. In the same office, I believe. This is....ehm....slightly annoying. I mean....OF COURSE it's more efficient to have the applicant come all the way BACK to the damn office to go through the entire bloody fingerprint and passportphoto process AGAIN. Sheesh! Using the information you already took one month ago? What NONSENSE! We can't do that! That would make half of the administrative workers unnecessary....yeah....of course, stupid me. Anyways, I'm now waiting for the letter with the actual appointment for the fingerprinting session. Sammy, Chris, T and me are going on a little weekend trip to Atlantic City last weekend of februari. Atlantic City is basically the Las Vegas of the east coast. It's gonna be cool :-) T and I are seeing it a mini-Honeymoon. Can't gamble a lot, but it's fun to be there. Free drinks! ;-) Hehehe.... Oh, this I found on the internet a couple of weeks ago. It's just fun. You may (or may not) have heard of a game called World Of Warcraft. Jorg knows what I'm talking about hehehe ;-) It's a game where you create a fantasy character and play your way through a long storyline consisting of countless of different quests and missions. Now, someone made a song and used characters from the game to make a video about it....it's funny, however, probably best not viewed at work. Just to be on the safe side ;-) Here's the link.... http://www.youtube.com/player.swf?video_id=lr_HR-iIlYg&l Enjoy! Oh well, I'll try to be a bit more frequent with my updates guys. Sorry for the long absence :-) C ya all laters!! Emile Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
8:00 am	Newsflash! Well...not really, just an ordinairy update :-) Right....8 am (8:00)....Cup of beef and vegetable soup....computer. Time for an update :-) The saturday after the last update (I know I know....long time ago lol) we took Butterscotch to the vet. Have I ever told you how much she hates the car? She also hates being outside of the apartment. She hates the vet too. She hates being in her crate. Can you imagine what she thinks of T and me when we put her in her crate to leave the apartment and get in the car to take her to the vet? Right....hehehe. She starts crying the second she SEES the crate....and doesn't stop till she's back home and out of her prison. Anyway....the vet looked at her bandage and then basically said that things looked good. I thought to myself "You got to be kidding right? You're not even gonna take the bloody bandage off?!" So I told him that some white stuff was appearing inside the wound we'd been taking care of all week, and that I'd appreciate him taking a look at it because that worried me a little. He did. The next thing we did after he looked, was make an appointment for an operation, because he said that it had to be removed. Nice to know that he wasn't gonna look at it after he saw that the bandage was nice and good huh? Oh well....surgery was scheduled for the next thursday at about 1 pm (13:00). Operation went fine and Butterscotch was happyily relieved, and tilting over to one side because she was used to having that extra weight on one side. That was funny. So....now there's a nice 5 inch (=about 12cm) long incision that was closed with staples. I would have expected stitches, but hey....I'm not a vet. Again, Butterscotch was wrapped in bandages and stuff with a creme that would soothe any pain and stop the itching feeling as it would start to heal. Now....this all went way too easy, don't you think? Exactly....so did Butterscotch. So she decided to (and how she managed, we still don't know) move down her bandage and expose her stapled incision. Aparently she didn't like the top 3 staples, so she tore them out. Right. You'd expect her to leave it alone and let it heal, but nooooooo. She had to pull out 3 staples, leaving about an inch (2cm) of the wound to open up again. That was fun. Tara had just lost some of her stress (evaluations at work and the cat made her life quite stressful) because the evaluation went close to perfect and the cat's operation was successful. Well....that stress level went skyhigh again. Thanks Butterscotch. We cleaned the incision and wrapped her up in bandages again and took her to the vet the next morning. They brought her in to the operation room (OR) and brought her out about 5 minutes later, telling me that "everything looked good, no problems". I was a bit confused. Hadn't I explained to the doctor what happened? Didn't he look at the staples? He said he had looked and that everything looked good and that we should continue with this till next saturday, when the staples are to be removed. That night, we changed her bandage and noticed that the part of the wound that had the staples torn out was surprisingly closed up. I guess it had been like this this morning, otherwise the vet wouldn't have said it was good. Aparently the wound had closed itself overnight. Hell....I don't care. As long as the cat's fine and healthy (well....physically healthy at least) I'm happy. What was that other thing again....oh yeah, shopping! Last friday, Tara, her parents and me went grocery shopping like we do every friday afternoon. This week was a little different though. Our combined grocery bill was a little over $1,000. Why? Well....the supermarket we get our stuff from has a special arrangement. You can save up and, over time, you can earn yourself discounts. We saved up together and got the highest discount possible....50%. They do this every year. They save up to the 50% discount and do one monster shopping session to stock up on things like detergents (wasmiddelen), cosmetics and other stuff that doesn't go bad for a long time and are normally expensive. We had 4 shopping carts filled with stuff. I've never spent that much on groceries in my life :-) Well....now I have hehe. I still haven't heard anything from the government and, seeing how close we're getting to the holidays, I don't expect to hear from them till mid january at the earliest. That kinda sucks, but I don't really have any other choice but to wait. Other than that, things are still the same. I still try to do most of the housework and cook half the times (pa, ma, bedankt voor die Knorr pakketten! Groot succes hehehe) and help Tara with grading schoolpapers and test and little stuff like that. I still go to the gym almost every day and I'm starting to get in better shape already. I feel better too. A few days ago, I watched the draw for the World Cup Soccer on tv. We're in a group that has good possibilities for us to get through to the next round. Argentina, Ivory Coast, Servia/Montenegro and Holland. We should get 2nd place at least. If not....then I'll be really REALLY disappointed. I just hope I can find a channel here that shows the matches....or at least the summaries. HUP HOLLAND HUP! C ya all laters :-) Have fun....and till next update. Emile Current Mood: groggy (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
8:51 pm	Ehm.....YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN :-)....Oh yeah....and Thanksgiving....:) Sooooo....here I am. Sippin' on a glass of Irish Mist (whiskey but with more flavour lol) and typing another update in my Livejournal. Today was interesting. This morning I accidentally shut off the alarm when I wanted to hit snooze....next thing we know, we get woken up by the phone ringing. It was T's school....and they wanted to know how she could be home, picking up the phone, while she should be in her classroom teaching a Horde of 24 7 year-olds. Yeah....one of those days.... It was the first time in 3 years of teaching that she overslept. It was noted, but I doubt it'll have serious consequences. At least....I hope. We'll see. Butterscotch (T's cat) got injured last week. She has a tumor-like thingy growing in the skin on her side, and that has formed a large lump over the last few months. She injured it a week ago or so and aparently kept licking and tearing on the scab that formed....till she tore it off. The thing is....the lump has no feeling, so she doesn't know what goes on on that part of her body. However, because the lump kept growing in her skin, it slowly built up more and more pressure. Well, you can imagine what happened when she tore off that scab....yup, it caused a nice large open wound on her side. Of course, Her Majesty didn't notice a thing. She walked into the livingroom, happily swaying her tail and her one side covered in blood. T rushed to the nearest supermarket (it was 11pm at the time), and luckily managed to get some bandages and gauses to give the cat an emergency treatment till we could take her to the vet. I just remembered that it was last thursday night, cause it was the night of Thanksgiving (which was kinda boring to be honest, much like Christmas dinner, only smaller lol) So we cleaned up our cat and took her to the vet the next day. We basically got the "You did the right thing. Keep up the good work" routine. Oh well....at least the cat is relatively ok. We're gonna take her to the vet again this saturday for a check-up and see if they need to perform surgery(sp?) on her. We'll see. Tigger (the other cat) kinda decided to bond to me. Kinda nice to have a pet that considers you 'his person'. He's cool. About 1.5 years old and quite energetic. Recently he's decided it's fun to jump on my lap when I'm at the computer. It's not a huge problem, and I'm quite flattered by the gesture, but he's too big lol. I can't work my keyboard with him on my lap. Besides that, he doesn't really sit still....he moves around a LOT. Again, preferably when I'm busy, he'll decide that my keyboard is more comfortable than my lap....or that my mouse is a wonderful toy. Today, he actually bapped it off of my desk. Thankfully, with a lot of patience and a lot of luck, combined with a total lack of technical abilities, I managed to put it back together and to get it to work properly again. I was happy when it worked again....very happy. By the way....I've read in several replies and emails of friends of mine that they expect me to be some kind of body builder by the time they get to see me again. Erm....NO :-) I just do some tennis-related muscle exercises (weights) and cardio to keep my overall fitness at an acceptable level. Considering the profession I'm looking to live off of here, I think it's necessary :-) Tara gave Butterscotch a bath today....it's been a long time since I've laughed so hard. I'll try to remember to take pictures next time. You see....Butterscotch is a long-haired, fluffy type of cat. If you make that fluffy coat wet....you get a hilarious looking little animal. And cats can speak with their eyes....and the message she gave me for laughing at her, I can't write down here. It would be inappropriate. But I can tell you that it had to do with a lot of curses and ugly things she wished upon me....hehehehe. It was so funny. Oh well....almost time to put a new bandage on her and to give her her banana-flavoured anti-infection medicine. I never knew cats hated the taste of bananas so much. And she HATES it. Good god....the trouble we have to go through (yes, I said 'we'. It takes both of us to get hee to drink and swallow the medicine) to get that medicine in her. It's fun too though hehehe....she's been giving me a lot of evil looks lately ;-P C ya laters guys. Till the next update. Emile Current Mood: calm (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 9th, 2005
9:58 am	Fun....:-) I noticed this quiz on T's LiveJournal and decided to take it :-) This Is My Life, Rated Life: 7.2 Mind: 6 Body: 8.6 Spirit: 6.5 Friends/Family: 7.1 Love: 9.1 Finance: 4.7 Take the Rate My Life Quiz Aparently I'm happy :-) Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 8th, 2005
11:20 pm	Birthday My very first birthday away from home. It feels strange. Normally, me and friends would have been partying out in Den Haag all night this saturday or the next. Or, since my parents were on a trip to Egypt, a large party at my place and THEN we'd go out into the city all night. Of course T and her family did all they could to make me feel good and at home, which I'm very grateful for and greatly appreciate....I know I'm loved on this side of the ocean too, they make that very clear.... But despite all that, it feels strange to not be able to celebrate it with the friends and family in Holland....I mean, I know they love me and support me and all that wonderful stuff. And I'm happy for every little message/email/phonecall I get from them. I could have never guessed that little things like a birthday would generate such a....maelstrom of feelings. Both happy to be able to finally celebrate it with my love, but on the other side a little sad of not following a tradition of happy drinking with friends and family back in Holland. And not just the drinking, although I've noticed that that 's inevitable hehe. It's everything :-) I miss the social life. The little things. And I know damn well, that Tara and I will do everything we can to set up as much of a social life as possible over here. And I know that it takes time. Bleh....I'm really not miserable or anything, guys. Sometimes I allow myself my gloomy ponderings and self-pity, that's all. :-) In fact, I really enjoy my time with my fresh new wife. Needless to say, there are a couple of bumps on the road, but so far we've been abler to talk them out and come to conclusions and decisions that we both feel are satisfying. We get along just fine, even after having passed the 2 month mark. Slowly learning how it is to live with the other person, realising exactlyhow many things are 'normal procedure' for one or one culture where they are completely strange or unknown to the other. It takes time and patience....a LOT of patience hehehe :-) Thankfully both of us have a patient personality, so everything works out well in 95% of the cases. Unfortunately, my bro-in-law and other relative from T's side, are still working of the wedding movie DVD. It's taking a lot longer than anticipated at first. They let me know, however, that they're working on it to get it done and ready as soon as possible. As soon as I get it, I'll copy it and send it over. I'm kinda curious myself hehe. Well....that's it for now guys....love ya, both sides of the ocean. :-) Till the next update! Emile Current Mood: Strange (Comment on this)
Monday, October 31st, 2005
9:10 am	Happy Halloween :-) Halloween....in Holland it's known, but hardly celebrated. In the US it's an important festivity, even though it's not a national holiday and thus no days off. Other that that, it depends on the individual families on how 'big' Halloween will be. Some families will only buy a bag of candy for the little 'trick-or-treat'ers', and sometimes not even that. Others will go the entire way and decorate their house with lightshow and everything. Tara's family (and T especially) is BIG on Halloween. I spent yesterday, whole day, covering T's family's house with fake spiderwebbing material. From roof to bottom. In a previous year they decided to purhcase a couple of fogmachines. Her very handy dad pierced a couple of 30 ft long piped to distribute the fog over the entire yard and driveway. A couple of scary looking lamps to show the way the kids are supposed to walk, leading them to the back yard. There, a green partytent has been dressed up as a tomb with it's own fogmachine, a flying red-eyed bat on a string and an old rusty chest that's covered in spiderwebbing. 2 large fluorescent (sp?) blacklight tubelights stuck to the ceiling of the tent for an awesome effect. And as a final touch, they decided I'm to go inside the chest to scare the kids shitless. They have to open the chest, where I'll be laying with the bowl of candy on my chest. I think it'll be cool. My first Halloween. And I'm a main attraction. Now....people that know me, know that I'm really not the type of guy that likes to be in the (Blacklight)spotlight all that much. Ah well, we'll see how it goes :-) I'd better start getting ready.... Happy Halloween everyone! C ya on the next update :-) Emile Current Mood: groggy (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
1:47 pm	More pics! :-) Yes Ladies and Gentlemen! I have added a few more pics to my site at www.datazap.net/sites/Shagrath/EmileTaraWedding Have a look :-) And yes Koos....I got to ride on that special edition Road King :-) See how the gear-lever says "Firefighter"? Pretty cool. There's a plaque on the tank with all the names of firemen that died on 11-09-2001. Great ride! I wanna get me a HD :-) Hehehe Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
11:05 pm	My first post Lo, and behold. Emile presents his first ever post in his personal log. As a sidenote, I'd like to add that I will be keeping all my posts here in english for now. My Dutch friends and relatives will be able to read/understand the english where I doubt if the reverse would be the case for all my friends with english as a first language. Later on, if it appears that there is a lot of interest from the Dutch side, I assume there is the option of creating Dutch topics. Till that time, we'll all have to be satisfied with writing in English. There....having that said, we can move on to the more important things in life. Do people ponder in life? I do. For example....I wonder what went through Butterscotch's (Tara's 245 year old cat) mind when she decided to lay across both my wrists as I am typing all of this. I sometimes truly believe that it is one of her basic needs in life to grasp every chance and possibility to be annoying to me. Well....to me during the daytime, since she won't go near me at night. She really is Tara's cat, and I'm merely a barely decent replacement while T's at work. She doesn't, however, settle down quietly and sleep. That would be a waste of perfectly good opportunities to be annoying. She keeps my lovely wife (still sounds strange hehe) awake by walking on her head, hair, face, back and any other bodypart she can reach without too much of a hassle. I love cats. Fortunately, my Tigger is completely different. Other than gnawing on your lower arm as gratitude for a nice back-scratch and tearing up everything that even remotely resembles a curtain, he's the ideal cat. Plus he beats up Butterscotch when she's being a brat (ergo, whenever Her Royal Fuzzyness isn't asleep)....which (since I know Tara's reading this) I TOTALLY do not tolerate ;-) hehe So far....everything's good and dandy. The wedding was better than I could have hoped for. Both sets of parents got along just fine. That really was my biggest worry. It was the first time they met, after all, plus I expected there to be a significant language-barrier. That last part, thankfully, was unnecessary. My family managed just fine, and T's family was quite considerate towards them and (which I heard afterwards) they didn't even really have to adjust in any of the conversations> I was quite pleasantly surprised and flattered by the numerous compliments I got for the proficiency in english of my relatives :-) Go Dutchies! hehe.... Right....so that was fun. Now, a month later, we finished and sent in the latest pile of paperwork to make my stay in the US legal and permanent. Typically one of those things where it's the goal that counts, because there's nothing fun that I can find in waiting for a bunch of overpaid lazy government administators to ignore my forrest-worth of paper sheets filled with my personal info and to make the immensely exhausting effort of raising their arm to place a stamp of approval on my Adjustment of Status, Work Permit and Travel Permit. Forgive me my generalisation with a hint of sarcasm here. I know they're not all overpaid. So....here I am hehehe. Spending my time at the gym I signed up for a week ago, on the computer (games, games and more games hehe) and being, what T calls so lovingly, a 'house bitch'. Oh well....at least I have two wonderful cats to entertain.... Right now, I really can't think of anything else to write. Partially because it's almost midnight and I gotta get T to bed. TO SLEEP....perverts....geez. Hmm....I'd better start inviting people to my friends list. Otherwise I'm putting in all this effort with no one to actually read it :-) After reading it, one could conclude that that would have been better for everyone, but basically....I don't care. MWUAHAHA :-) G'night all. Sweet dreams. :-) Till the next exciting update. Emile Current Mood: content (1 Comment |Comment on this)