Give Gleefully Update!

Well, I am pleased to announce that our video won the month of November contest and we are now contenders of the grand prize competition! The competition ends on December 11.

Thanks for all of your support!!

Give Gleefully Update!

It is almost the end of the competition. Only a couple more days to go! Please help to VOTE DAILY for our video!

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag

Thanks in advance for your continued support!!

Give Gleefully Update!

We are now literally head to head with our competitor! We need your help again! Please vote daily!

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag  

Thanks in advance!

Give Gleefully Update!

We are now down by 120 votes! Our competition is definitely relentless and will stop at nothing until they win! They have over 10,000 employees in their company, so we need more outside votes to help us! Remember it's for a good cause!

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag

Thanks in advance for your support!

Give Gleefully Update!

We are now down by 1! Your daily support is appreciated!! :)

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag

Giving Gleefully part cinq!

We are very close now! Please continue to vote DAILY! :)

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag

Giving Gleefully part quatre!

We're only 14 votes behind and we can finally catch up! We need your votes!
  

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag (Bookmark and VOTE DAILY!)

 

Thanks in advance for all of your support!

Giving Gleefully part trois!

Here's an update! It is November 5, and day 5 of the competition! Our competitor is a company with over 10,000 employees, and will be very hard to beat! We need all the help that we can get in terms of votes and donations! This includes weekend voting!

Thanks for those who have supported us in our cause! :)
 

Giving Gleefully part deux!

 Today is day 2 of the competition. It's for a great cause and we really need your help! :)

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag

Giving Gleefully!

First, Happy Hallowe'en!

Wow, it feels like forever since I have blogged. Things are going pretty well. The latest project that I had been working on is for the United Way. If you have seen the show "Glee", you would have remembered one episode where the Glee club does a flash mob in their quad to encourage other students to join the Glee Club. This is very similar and is in the form of a video contest.

Telamon Corporation, the company I currently work for, is participating in this contest for the United Way Give Gleefully video contest. I am also in the video, so you'll probably get a good laugh! There is 1 month left for the voting. Starting Tuesday, November 1^st we need everyone to vote and donate. You are allowed ONE VOTE PER DAY, and so we need everyone to VOTE DAILY. The link below will take you to the United Way website and the video.

The first time you click the vote button it will ask for your name and email address. United Way will send you an email; in order to activate your voting, you must click on the link in the email. This will cast your vote for the first day. Then each proceeding day all you have to do is hit the vote button.  The number of votes will re-set starting November 1^st, and our video will be measured by the number of votes we receive from Nov 1^st – Nov 30^th.

The 2^nd part of this competition is to see who can raise the most money through donation. We need to raise more money for the United Way. The link will allow you to donate straight on their website via credit card or PayPal account.

  

http://www.givegleefully.org/playvideo/82/United-Way-s-Price-Tag (Bookmark and VOTE DAILY!)

 

Thanks in advance for all of your support!

 

This weekend of fun!

Saturday for the most part was uneventful. In the morning, we did our household chores (vacuuming the house and mowing the lawn). In the evening, we were to go to my concert held by my band (Indianapolis Symphonic Band, where I play the flute) that was supposed to be at Fort Harrison State Park. Since it was raining pretty hard, however, it was moved to a nearby Ivy Tech Community College. This was the second time the concert was moved over there. I was not able to attend the first one, as I was ill.

Our theme this time was a tribute to Sousa, TV shows and a little bit of patriotic music in preparation for the 4th of July concert. We played music from the TV show "Glee", as well as a medley of old shows, such as "Happy Days" and "I Love Lucy". My favorite one was the tribute to Spike Jones (I had never heard of him until we started playing his music). He liked to use different percussion instruments in his music, including rubber ducks, cymbals, and other odd things. Our band's version was hilarious, but you just have to be there to see it. RR told me that he enjoyed the concert, and I told him that he will have to come to the one on June 21 because he still needs to take pictures (we forgot the camera this time). That will be held on a field outside an elementary school. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate that day, so that we actually are able to play outside.

After attending church this morning, we gathered with A & Y for another round of rock climbing. Y had a Groupon for a rock climbing gym in Brownsburg, called The Crag. Since it was at a different place, we decided to buy gloves at Wal-Mart. We thought that it would be similar to Climb Time Indy, but it was not. Here, they provide you with shoe rentals and harnesses; however, each person has to learn how to tie the figure 8 knots. Also, the person who is belaying really needs to make sure that he/she is tied down to the ground so that he/she does not fly upward when the climber falls. I learned this the hard way. I did not tie myself low enough to the ground and was pulled upwards when RR let go of the wall. It was a hilarious sight, really. Perhaps if a video was taken when it happened a second time, I could have contributed it to America's Funniest Home Videos and won something. Regardless, I vowed that it will not happen again. In general, this place seems a little more suited for experts. There is less variety and most of them just seem more difficult than the ones at Climb Time Indy. It was fun, nonetheless.

After we were all sore from the climbing and belaying, we decided to go for sushi at Ginza Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar on west 38th Street. One waiter asked us if we wanted a table and we said yes. It was only later that by "table", he meant a table with a sizzling hot plate where the chef makes hot dishes right in front of you (we would have liked to try that sometime, but not today). Since we were going to be ordering and sharing among the four of us, we decided to switch to one of the regular tables right in front of the sushi bar. The sushi was quite decent though the price was a little bit on the expensive side.

Overall, despite all the rain we had, it was another fun weekend.

  

Crazy thunderstorm last weekend

Big news in Indy! We had another crazy thunderstorm last weekend. This one actually happened in the middle of the night on Friday. This one, however, was probably the biggest one and more damaging than the previous ones I have experienced. First, it caused one of our neighborhood's houses tree branches to fall off and block the front entrance of the house (see pictures below).

Second, it decreased some productivity at my workplace. I normally like to go to work early so that I can come home early. On Monday morning, I went to work early as usual, but I noticed that my access card did not work. Luckily, someone had already propped open one of the doors with a trash can. Of course, when I got in, I could not access my e-mail or the company server. There were two other people in my department who were early birds, so we all started chatting because there was nothing else we could do. The IT department did not get in until an hour later. We later learned that the storm had impaired our security system as well as our servers. The backup generator did not help, either, so it was a very big mess.

Anyway, it turned out fine in the end. I just hope that our systems are revamped and is protected from another big storm such as this one.

Tree branch that fell at a neighborhood home

This is the damage that big storms in Indiana can cause

Last weekend!

RR, A & Y rollerblading at Fort Harrison State Park

Friday

Friday evening was movie night. We were going to rent from Red Box, but opted instead to watch one of the movies we had bought from the Borders sale. The movie was called, "Old Dogs". The comedy stars John Travolta and Robin Williams, an unlikely duo, if you ask me. I'm not sure if I have ever seen John Travolta in a comedy before, but he was actually pretty good in this one. It is about two best friends who also happen to business partners. One of them finds out that he has twins from his ex. It's hilarious to see how the two middle-aged bachelors try to deal with the kids when they try to close out a business deal with a Japanese company.

Saturday

Saturday afternoon, we went with our dating couple friends indoor rock climbing at Climb Time Indy. We'll call them A and Y. It was our second time coming here. It was A's first time and Y's second or third time. Y came prepared with climbing booties and harness. Since we knew that one of my belaying problems last time was that the rope would burn my hands, we asked for gardening gloves from the same guy who gave us instructions the first time. To begin, we had another quick lesson from another instructor and began the climbs. We each took turns climbing and belaying each other.  RR and I both had more energy climbing the second time around. RR even managed to climb a slanted wall.with ease. Overall, we all had a lot of fun.

After the climbs, we headed back to our place to have a barbeque - it was a terrific day for one, as it wasn't all too hot.

Sunday

On Sunday, we went rollerblading at Fort Harrison State Park for some rollerblading with A & Y and Sirius.  RR and I had not roller bladed since last summer, so it was nice to do it again. RR and I took turns, as one of us had to watch Sirius. We decided that I would start first. Now, I am still not that comfortable going down a steep hill only because I haven't quite learned how to stop. Unlike roller skates, roller blades have their stops at the back, which makes stopping much harder to accomplish. So when there was a steep hill on one of the main trails, he walked down with me holding on to his shoulders. It was a little bit scary, but fun, nonetheless. After rollerblading, we cleaned up and headed over to our friends' (R & O) house for a barbecue. Another friend and colleague of RR was visiting. It was a cool, but as it got darker, it turned so cold and windy that it no longer felt like summer. That's Indiana weather. One can never predict how hot and cold this place can be...

Overall, it was a fun weekend.

A & Y rollerblading from afar

Traveling by air these days

RR was supposed to be coming home last night. His Delta flight was to land at 9:47PM last night and I was to pick him up at the airport. If everything went as planned, I wouldn't be writing this in my blog.

The main problem was that Indy was hit by a amazing thunderstorm last night. Our weather radio gave a warning that a thunderstorm was coming from Carmel. After a week without rain and temperature yesterday around 35 C/95 C, I suppose rain was expected. However, I did not expect it to be this bad. When I left the house, it had already started raining. I returned my Red Box DVD at our nearest Kroeger and decided that if I left for the airport then and drove very slowly, I could make it to the airport by 9:30PM. The road on 86th Street was extremely flooded. I was only going 30 MPH on a 40 MPH road and I would still make a huge splash over the road. Going on I-465 wasn't so bad, though I still drove under the speed limit at 50MPH. On the way, I saw some amazing lightning and even passed by some motorcyclists! I thought to myself, "Ok, they are either very brave, or very stupid to be riding out in a motorcycle in weather like this!"

When I was close to the airport, it was raining so hard that I literally could not see while only driving at 20MPH! Since I have not had much experience driving in extremely rainy weather, I wasn't sure where I could park to wait for the rain to stop. However, I saw two other cars put on their hazard lights and pull over to the right side, so I did the same. When the rain dissipated a little bit, I started again for the parking garage. I pushed the button for a ticket, but the all parking levels were full except for the one on Level 3. I arrived at about 9:30PM, only to find out from the monitors that the plane was going to be an hour late. All the flights that were supposed to land at 9PM or later, were delayed. Many people were just glued to the monitors, as if it was a life and death situation. Half an hour later, I was surprised to hear from RR and I thought that they had an emergency landing. He explained that the Indy airport was closed and that they were in South Bend refueling. He said that he would let me know if there was anymore news. We hung up and  I was still hoping at that time that they were going to be here at 10:47PM. The monitor changed 30 minutes later and it said that the flight was diverted to South Bend, Indiana, but there was no estimated time of arrival. The majority of Delta flights had the "diverted" status.

Many of us were confused about what the "diverted" status meant. Since RR had already mentioned that they were in South Bend, I knew that it just meant they were diverted in South Bend and would be flying from there to Indy. Fortunately for me, I was not totally bored waiting for RR to come home. I met two men who were eagerly waiting for their wives to come back from the Ukraine. Their wives were on the same flight as RR and one of them explained to me that with the weather this bad, planes are often diverted to other places to refuel. It used to be that when gas prices were low, planes would have a full tank of gas and the pilots would circle around until the storms dissipated. However, since airlines are cutting costs, planes are not filled with a full tank of gas, but only enough to make the trip. Also being a native Hoosier, he explained that decades ago, Indiana used to have 80MPH trains from Indy to Kokomo. However, since no one rode them, they just went out of business. It was interesting to learn this piece of history. I hope that one day, trains can be brought back.

I continued to check the monitor for status changes and at the very end the whole flight was taken out. I wasn't sure what this meant so I asked one of the guys and he said that his wife told him that they were going to board at another gate. The monitor never updated and we were left to rely on updates from our loved ones. The flight eventually arrived at 1AM this morning. I was so happy to see RR and he was happy to see me.

Overall, it was an interesting adventure for both of us, but not one that we would like to have again. 

Ticks this summer!

A couple of days ago, Sirius had a case of ticks. I was petting Sirius and felt bumps on his head and neck. They were yellowish and the size of corn kernels. Now, I had never seen or encountered ticks in my life, so I did not know they were ticks. I thought that they were cysts. I called RR (who was still away) and after seeing pictures I had taken, he deduced that they might be ticks.

I called our vet's office early the next morning and found out that though our vet was not available, if the problem was ticks, then the vet technicians could take care of them. The vet technicians tried to find the ticks that I had seen, but the ticks had already dropped off by that time. However, they did find a tick in his ear, as well as a baby one on his body. Once they picked them off, I authorized the vet technicians to apply Frontline Plus. This is a monthly dose that would kill the existing ticks and eggs on his body, and prevent future ticks from coming on to him.

When I got back to the car, I saw one of the ticks that had fallen off of Sirius. It was fat, white and the size of a kidney bean. At first I thought it was dead. However, when I looked closely, it was crawling ever so slowly. I went back to the vet's office and they gave me a plastic bag to pick it up and they would dispose of it for me. I still do not know where the other tick dropped off - it could have dropped off when we were outside or inside our house?? It gives me the shivers thinking about it.

I am not sure where Sirius could have picked these up. We did go to Eagle Creek Park on Monday, so he might have picked them up there, or even just from our daily walks. He had never had these before. A colleague of mine said that ticks are prevalent in Indiana, and this year has been particularly bad. It has very warm lately, so maybe that's a good environment for both ticks and fleas.

Anyway, with Frontline Plus on him, Sirius is safe from fleas and ticks. I am still a little bit nervous about bringing him outside, but that's just me.

tick on head

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Eagle Creek Park

Memorial Day weekend 2011 was more about rest and relaxation. As I have previously posted, I have not been feeling that well. RR is in Stonybrook for a math conference. Other than doing some grocery shopping, taking Sirius to the dog park and getting some house errands done, Sirius and I went for a hike at Eagle Creek Park. Many people were there picnicking, kayaking, paddle boating, etc. It was just a beautiful sunny day. While it was extremely hot (84 F/29 C), it was nice to just enjoy a little bit of nature. We saw a mother duck swimming with her ducklings, as well as a tiny toad.

By the end of the trail, Sirius drank water like crazy and lay down in the back of the car for the whole ride home :)

Tiny toad among the rocks

Happy Memorial Day!

Louisville KY/Madison IN weekend trip

It's been a while since I blogged. I have been getting over a pretty bad cold. Now I'm feeling better and ready to blog again!

Last weekend, we took Sirius to see some state parks around Madison, IN. We left Friday early afternoon and were able to take a look around the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  Since it had been raining quite a bit that week, the water level of the Ohio River was very high. It was a breathtaking sight. I probably would have enjoyed it more if my cold had not really bothered me. After a little hike on one of the trails (I can't believe how much poison ivy there were on this trail!), we decided to cross over to Louisville, where we reserved a room at a Red Roof Inn. Since the sun had not set yet, we went to the Louisville Waterfront Park. The scenery reminded me of the scenery around Ashbridges Bay Park and Ontario Place in Toronto. One interesting thing is that while there are many structural bridges for vehicles to cross, there was one that would be eventually built as a pedestrian bridge.

That night, we checked into our hotel (one of the great things about the Red Roof Inn is that they are pet friendly and do not charge a pet fee). We keft Sirius in the room and went out to dinner. After driving around, we eventually settled on Macaroni Grill. There is a Macaroni Grill near my workplace i

Falls of the Ohio State Park

n Carmel, but we just never tried it. Although a bit pricey, the food there was decent. Unfortunately, neither of us could finish our entrees because we had too much bread!

The next morning, I felt much better from the cold and was ready for more hiking.  We crossed back over the KY/IN bridge to the Indiana side towards Madison. Our first stop was Charlestown State Park.The hiking trails here ranged from moderate to rugged. The trail we took was a  rugged 2.9 miles. By the time we were done with the trail, we were both tired and ready for lunch. Next stop was Clifty Falls State Park. This state park is a must-see with picturesque scenes of little and big waterfalls. The trail we took led us to a rock that looked very much like a piece of cake. Hence, the name of the rock, "Cake Rock".

Our last stop was Versailles State Park. This was the park where RR had much success with fishing. He had brought his fishing pole in hopes of having a few casts, but did not have much of a chance to use it. Here, however, he was able to catch two fish. We are not sure what type of fish these are, but we think they might be small mouth bass. There is a law in the Indiana State Parks that unless the fish are 14 inches or greater, they have to be thrown back into the water.

At the end of the trip, we were all very tired, including Sirius. It was his first road trip of 2011. Now that summer is here again, I'm sure he will be looking forward to more of these!

RR caught a fish that we think is a small mouth bass!

Rock Climbing!

RR and I decided to go rock climbing yesterday at Climb Time Indy. We had two Groupons to use up that allows us to go several times. I have never gone rock climbing before and RR had done some during his time in boy scouts. Since last night turned out to be a rainy night, we felt it would be great for us to do it.

First, they had us put on these rock climbing shoes that had to be tight at the toe part. Then we had to put on a harness that is enough to give anyone a wedgie! There were many rock climbing walls available in this place that varied from easy to medium to hard. The easy climbs were marked with black tape. These were the ones that act like a handle that you can easily grab onto and pull you up. Since I had never done this before, the guy tending the store gave us some instructions on manipulating the rope and lever for the partner who is climbing. The hardest part for me to get was the belaying part. Since RR is twice my weight I was more worried about getting him down safely.

At first, all this seemed very intimidating. Seeing all the walls and steps that we have to take to climb up and grab onto scared me a little bit. However, once we got going and tried climbing several easy walls, I got the hang of it. I was even better at belaying RR. After about 1 1/2 hours, we were both pretty tired.

Overall, it was a great place. I would highly recommend anyone who enjoys these activities. I am so excited to go again. Of course, next time I will remember to bring gloves (the rope can be a little bit rough on the hands).

 

Finally...some rain in Indy

Well over the past week, we have had a bit of a drought in Indy. Temperatures soared into the 80's (almost 30C) and there was not a drop of rain in sight. The storms that seemingly were supposed to hit us the last few days actually ended up missing us. So day after day, we were in extremely humid weather. Don't get me wrong, after all that rain we had previously, I liked the fact that we didn't have rain. I also enjoyed wearing skirts and dresses to work again (in spite of being cold at work all the time, but that's another story).

Now, we finally have some much needed rain for a cool down. RR was a little worried that it wasn't going to rain. He had spread some poison to kill some of our weeds in our yard and he was hoping that the rain would seep into the dirt. We could not let our dog, Sirius, out in the yard for a couple of days because of that.

Anyway, some rain always makes the yard nice and plush!

Tulips in our front yard

Bug season again!

Well, it is very warm around Indy right now. This whole week, temperatures were around the high 70's to low 80's (25-30 C). It was all hot and muggy, which means that it is also the season that the bugs like to come out. I really hate bugs..well, more scared of them actually. Now, there are some bugs that I don't mind. Ladybugs, for example. They are actually kind of cute. It's kind of sad that they are very short-lived. They often come in our house during the winter and die.

Another bug that we often find are these furry brown bugs that look a little bit like caterpillar-silverfish cross. I just found out by Googling that these bugs are called Firebrats. They are a real nuisance as oftentimes, they pop out of nowhere and scurry along. I have never seen these except for in Indiana.

Finally, there are bugs called cicada killers that often come out in June and are gone by August. They burrow themselves in your yard and fly out and start buzzing annoyingly. They, of course, got their names because they actually prey on cicadas.

The bugs I have mentioned are generally harmless. Hopefully, we will not get the dangerous ones, such as bees and wasps.

Neighborhood Movie Theater opens!

While RR and I were out shopping at our favorite Wal-Mart, I noticed that there was a sign that said "Movie Buff Theatre". At first we thought that it was the old one that was closed down. It turns out it was the old theater with a new name. It's in the same plaza as the Wal-Mart on 86th Street. The price i

s great! Tickets are $5 Mon-Thur, $7 Fri-Sun all day long. The movies they show are also fairly recent. For example, they are now showing "Thor" and "Water for Elephants". We have not checked it out yet, but we will soon! Perhaps it will become our favorite movie nook!

Will write a review once we have the chance to experience it!

Answer to yesterday's trivia questions!

The Riddle

A coffin!

The Fun

Fact:

"Far" is the adjective and "farthest" is the superlative!

Some Trivia!

RR and I were listening to NPR and there was a show called "A way with Words". So here is a riddle and a fun fact:

The Riddle:

The maker does not want it,
The buyer does not use it,
The user never sees it.
What is it?

The Fun Fact:

There are several adjectives when you put "est" in front of it, it becomes a superlative (i.e. pretty becomes prettiest). There is one adjective that requires five additional letters to make it a superlative. What adjective is this?

Feel free to comment or stay tuned for answers tomorrow!

Roller Skating day!

RR and I went to an indoor roller skating arena yesterday. The place is Skateland Roller Skating by 38th Street in Indianapolis. We had a Groupon that we had to use up, so we decided that now is as good a time as any. When we got there, it was like a trip down memory lane. I haven't roller skated since grade school when we used have these roller skating parties in the multi-purpose room  and back when side pony-tails were very popular. RR had not roller skated since he was a young boy. My skates were very comfortable and look like the one in the image below. I wish that my ice skates were that comfortable (they are figure skates and I feel like my toes are squished every time I wear them. But I digress.Anyway, the environment there reminded me of the disco 70's when they have millions of disco balls hanging off ceilings. The website claimed that they were playing Top 40 mix, but I had not heard of any of the songs. We had plenty of fun anyway.

If anyone who is living in Indy and has not roller-skated for a while and want to go down memory lane or has kids, I recommend this place. It is also a place that caters to birthday parties. I definitely would take this place over Chuck E. Cheese's!

Cinco de Mayo!

So RR and I had dinner yesterday at a Mexican restaurant in honor of Cinco de Mayo. At first we wanted to go to Cancun Mexican Restaurant on 86th Street (partly because we have a coupon for it). However, it was too crowded and the wait time was about 35 minutes. It seemed like even non-Mexicans had a reason to have Mexican food, and not to mention, drink! We later opted for the restaurant that we went to last year and noticed that it had a new name. It was formerly La Hacienda but it was now a new restaurant (I forgot the name but will update this when I remember or see it again). The food there was decent. I ended up ordering a shrimp dish with diablo sauce (it was not a good decision, as I can no longer handle extremely spicy food). Needless to say, I did not finish my meal and we took it to go. RR had ordered a mild beef dish with tortillas. He could not finish his food, either, and since he can handle spicier food, we decided to take each other's leftovers for lunches the next day.

In Indy, there is a pretty big Mexican population (I am not certain why that is, but apparently the Indy environment suits them!), so there are many nice Mexican restaurants and grocery stores. Some of the restaurants we have been to and like are:

- La Hacienda (there is one on Michigan Road past 71st street, but I'm not sure of the exact address. The owner of the restaurant is a nice guy and gave us a sombrero as a Cinco de Mayo gift).


- El Rodeo (5501 W 86th St # A, Indianapolis)


- Cancun (1268 86th Street West, Indianapolis)
- El Meson (8920 Wesleyan Road)

- Oaxca Mexican Restaurant (2958 Dr Martin Luther King Jr) - pronounced "Wa-ha-ca" and they make their own tortillas!

More later. For now, ciao!

Osama bin Laden is killed and other news........

Well, when I first heard the news of bin Laden's death, I heard it on the radio going to work. At first I did not believe it. I mean, they had said this before, but he had still been alive back then, they had never located a body and they had no idea which cave he was in. Now, however, he is dead because he was shot in the head and chest at close range. Also, I got a note from 680 news that the DNA confirmed that it was indeed Osama bin Laden. What can I say, DNA trumps all! And yes, it's amazing that I live in Indiana, but I still subscribe to 680 news! As a Torontonian, I think it is still a very good source of news.

Another piece of news is that we just received the special commemorative issue of TIME that was especially focused on the Royal Wedding on April 29. Maybe it's just me, but did TIME just really have to devote almost 90% of the issue to this? When Diana and Prince Charles were married, was it a huge bustle as well? I don't know, but then again, I was not born then. The point is there are more pressing issues at hand, much MORE important than a Royal Wedding! Of course, the majority of the pressing issues are not really happy ones. Given the overall state of the economy, disastrous worldly weather, we all need to keep our minds from going berserk. If TIME editors feel that reporting on the British royalty makes them happy, then so be it.

Shopping (Garage sales/Borders/Wal-Mart, etc.)!

So yesterday was pretty much a shopping day. It was nice and sunny, 70F (or 21 C). RR and I started our day cruising in our car around our neigborhood in search for garage sales. It was our chance to find some deals and get to know more of our neighbors. Also, it didn't hurt that our main goal was to find some dining chairs, fit for either our dining room or kitchen table. We found some chairs and other deals during our trip. One of them was a beautiful 1940's 12-piece dining set with flowery patterns (great for parties when we have one), a complete set of silver-plated cutlery (again, good for parties) some lawn furniture (a love seat, chair and a table for some taking breaks in the yard), and an antique school desk with a chair attached to it (this one was more RR's idea). Needless to say, this part of the day was productive - we met some more neighbors and got some great deals.

Our next stop was at the Borders that was closing at the Fashion Mall. We had come here before, but the discount back then was only for 40% off. It was now increased to 50-70% off and they were including the sales of their furnitures and fixtures. The main point was to see what sales we could get for the furnitures and fixtures. We ended up buying two sturdy cafe chairs (will serve as extras at our dining table), small filing cabinet, office chair, two huge bags of coffee beans (now we will need a coffee grinder) and two big bottles of hand lotion (we'll have clean hands!). I did not find many other sales, except for another Josh Groban CD and a couple of DVD's.

Since it was one of the few days when it was not raining, RR wanted to do yard work. I was therefore left to do the food shopping. The cheapest food shopping place for us is the super Wal-Mart near our house. Now I know of some people who refuse to shop there because they claim Wal-Mart to be pure evil. It may be evil, but we like to shop there because it is cheaper than the other grocery stores nears us (e.g. Kroegers and Marsh). I think the Wal-Mart prices here are comparable to No Frills and possibly some cheap Chinese supermarkets in Toronto.  Perhaps the only time that has made me think twice about shopping was when a woman was recently carjacked in broad daylight. Of course, this incident happened during a weekday when most people were at work - I usually shop on weekends when there are often more people around. The point is, after seeing how much food you have in your cart, you often estimate how much it would be. I am always amazed how much lower it really is.

Overall, it was a tiring but a happy and productive day. I would have written this blog yesterday, but I have been trying to get over a bad cold that started a couple of days ago. I do feel much better today, especially having drank some hot ginger tea and taking some cold medicine.

Borders and Blockbuster Closings (a sad but harsh reality)

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I browsed around two closing Borders store in Carmel, Indiana (for reference, this is a suburb comparable to Richmond Hill/North York/Markham in Toronto) and in Indy near the Fashion Mall. For Canadians reading this, Borders is the U.S. equivalent of Chapters Indigo. Admittedly, I had not even heard of Borders until my husband and I were trying to find a coffee shop open on New Years day 2010 in Carmel, Indiana (this was one of the stores that was closing). It was sad to see that these types of stores are going out of business. Of course, as we live in the Internet era, it is no surprise that these closures are imminent.

The same story goes for Blockbusters. The one that was closing down was right across the street from the Borders closing in Carmel on 116th Street. With the recession, people just want cheaper rentals (Red Box) or have the convenience of just renting on the Internet (Net Flix). For example, with Red Box, you can rent for $1.00 + tax/day. If you are planning to watch the movie that evening, why pay $4-5 for the movie when you can just pay the $1.07 and return it the next day by 9PM? The rental machines are located outside major supermarket stores - Wal-Mart, Marsh, Kroegers, Gas Stations, etc.

Again, it is sad to see these stores go, but it is a harsh world that we live in. The good news is that my husband and I did get some pretty good deals at Borders, including some  Josh Groban CD's and an Anti-Monopoly game (haven't played this one yet, but the title was definitely intriguing!).

School bus stop laws

This morning when I was driving out of our neighborhood to go to work, I encountered a school bus coming into our neighborhood. I was going in the opposite direction and I was going about 30 miles/hour (speed limit in our neighborhood). The bus did not have the flashing stop signs and I did not see any children waiting outside, so I did not figure to stop. All of a sudden, the driver puts out the flashing stop signs and so I stop right in the middle. The driver glared at me as if I had committed the most horrible crime. Anyway, minutes later, I saw one of our neighborhood boys run across the road and get on the bus. I wasn't totally at fault, was I? I mean, if the driver had any intent of stopping to pick up this boy, he would have slowed down, put out the stop sign earlier and I would have gladly stopped right in front of the first flashing stop sign! And there won't be a glaring match!

Don't get me wrong - I am a law-abiding person. I will likely be a major advocate of school bus laws once we have school age kids and expect everyone to respect them. I just don't like being accused of doing something wrong when I was not wrong.

Anyway, that's enough of a rant for today!

Introduction!

Hi everyone!

This is the first time I have ever written a blog, so here goes!

I am originally from Toronto, Canada, and moved to Indianapolis over a year ago. Since moving here, I have had somewhat of a shock - almost everything is new to me (culture, environment, and such), I figure that it is probably time that I write about my experience/adventures here, so that Canadians who move here in the future get a sense of what Indy is all about (it is not just about corn fields and Indy car racing, which sadly is what crossed my mind before moving here).

For starters, let's talk about the weather here in Indy. It has been raining almost non-stop these past couple of days. And it is not your average thunderstorms - it is thunderstorms coupled with tornado warnings!  Two weeks ago, my husband and I heard tornado warning sirens outside and were trying to decide if we should be hiding in the pantry (we do not have a basement). Of course, nothing happened, and we were on our merry way after that. The point is, the biggest news stories this year happened to relate to weather! Oh, and who could forget that crazy ice storm back in early March that practically kept many people indoors for most of the time? That truly reminded me of that snow storm we had in Toronto sometime in 2001/2002 when the government hired the military to dig us out of one of the biggest blizzards of all time. Yes, campuses that usually never close was shut down for about 3-4 days!

Anyway, I really don't want to rant, but that was beginning to sound like one. So I will stop and hopefully, you will tune in to my next blog.

Until then...................