Daddy Says the Darndest Things

Mommy: "Daddy, I haven't writted my abstract for that conference yet..."

Daddy: "Mommy! Isn't that our ticket for Vegas?"

Mommy: "Daddy, are you still addicted to crap shoot?"

Back story: we went to Vegas in June the last two years. I was still pregnant with K two years ago and last year's trip K was four months old. I got free accomodation & plane ticket for me, we only need to get Hubbostrich plane ticket. You see how aspiring this conference is for Hubbostrich.

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K's 1 year old birthday party has passed. The candle was still laid around the kitchen.

Daddy: "We should save this candle..."

Mommy: "Yeah, we could use it for his 10 th birthday..."

Daddy: "Or for Antonia...Mommy, are you slow?"

Back story: we want a second baby, preferable a girl, and then we can name her Antonia after my sister.

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Mommy: "Daddy, we need your help again, K is stinky!"

Daddy: "Gosh, how many bombs are you gonna drop, Baby Boy?"

Mommy: "Eww...it's so stinky and sticky...Baby Boy, what did you eat?"

Daddy: "You have to give him a bath, Mommy, I don't want his wee-wee to get dirty...when is his regularly scheduled bath time?"

Mommy: "Regularly scheduled bath time? LOL. That's so funny...."

Back story: K regularly takes off when I'm changing his diaper. It's not so much of a problem when it's only pee diaper, but poo diaper? Oh..the horror.

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Daddy: "Is this what he's wearing to school?"
Mommy: "Yeah, why?"

Daddy: "I could never tell when you dress him with real stuff or not, the gray and red don't match, it's like mommy was in a hurry.."

Mommy: "???"

Yeah!

I am guessing I am not the only one who hates to check on mail box. Everything is online nowadays, and oh, those junk mail, can we request a stop to that already? These days, the hatred is still there but there are a couple of things I was anxiously waiting to receive: my renewed driver's licence, some bill, and USCIS correspondence related to my Adjustment of Status application. After two weeks of not checking in, I gather myself to the box.

And....the so called green card is here via USPS! I am officially a permanent resident of the US of A! No more fear of deportation when my work permit expired or when company decides to tank me. No more! Baby Boddler K wouldn't need to worry about his mom got shipped out back to her native land.

What sweet is that what I have is not a conditional greencard. And since I am married to a US citizen, in three years I am eligible to be naturalized. Should I change citizienship then? I like the perks such as serving in jury duty (Law & Order naivette) and having a voice in the political arena (not). Well, who knows. We will think of it when the time comes.

Our timeline (here just imitating what people out in immigration forums posted, not that I am a member of any of those):

• November 8 - Filing form I-130 (Hubbostrich's Petition for Alien Relative) and I-485 (my Adjustment of Status) together by ourselves
• Mid November - Receipts for form I-485
• Late November - USCIS requests for more documents pertaining to my legal status as of
• December 10 - Biometrics appointment at supporting office
• January 31 - Interview at field office
• February 1 - Approval notice for I-130 and I-485, green card starting date all the way to 2023
• Early February - Actual card received thru USPS

Three months just past by like that. You have to love the government when things like this befall on you, specially, after reading all the horror stories of the internet.

Thank God.

What's next? Changing my last name so we all have the same name? Nah, I like my name.

That Little Card that Could

Hubbostrich and I have been married for almost three years before we finally put our feet down to apply for an adjustment of status for a permanent residency for me. I have always been maintaining a student visa or a working visa thru my stays in the US of A. I am legal like that.

For this adjustment of status, the amount of paperwork needed was daring and mounting. But two Saturdays and a couple of melt downs later, we finally got them done and sent both applications and pertinent back up documents overnight to Main Office.

You get to tip your hats off to the government for our case. Original applications were sent out to State X, they then got assigned to State Y, before finally ended up at State Z, where we are. It's amazing things did not get lost in the mail. Also, by the end of the third month (which is today), we already got our interview done with the agent at our local field office. The interview was relaxed. We were both under oath. We showed requested documents, he marked stuff on the application form. Hubbostrich showed him a picture of Baby K. We talked about streets named after WW II heroes. It was just random.

At the end of the interview the Agent said "I intend to approve your application but I just need to perform one security check by the end of today. If everything cleared, you should receive your card in 30 days."

Agent couldn't confirm to the specific of this check but one resourceful individual could always Google, correct? My speculation that it should be this one. For all tend and purposes, one can only hope the result will be a "No Record". Vaya con dios.

Let's see where we are in the timeline when I finally get a card issued (or not). I am reaching a point of desperation like never before for a green card which, of course, will be a subject of another post.

Red

Last night when I got home,

Xindy: What's for dinner, Babe?

Hubbostrich: Something with meat sounds good.

Xindy: Does chicken count as meat?

Hubbostrich: Yeah!

Xindy: OK, think exactly what you want for dinner while I'm excusing myself to the bathroom.

Hubbostrich: OK!

Xindy is back.

Xindy: So..?

Hubbostrich: Chicken with Aaron's famous rub, baked potato chips, oh, and some salad.

Xindy: OK, sounds good to me!

Hubbostrich: Don't we need wine?

Xindy: Hmm..yeah...

Hubbostrich: Wanna walk to Safeway with me? I have this one in mind.

Xindy: What is it?

Hubbostrich: Remember the spicy cabernet?

Xindy: Oh yeah, that'll go with the spicy rub, and it's cheap too. What is it called? I don't have it written down on my black book.

Hubbostrich: Hmm...I don't quite remember, it has red blots on the label and somethingCatholic.

We managed to walk to the store and,

Xindy: I don't know where it is, Babe.


Hubbostrich: Oh, it's somewhere in here. Ah, here it is.

Later that night he accidentally let out that he was at Safeway earlier that afternoon for something else but managed to browsed thru the cabernet section and liberally had this bottle in mind.

What is the point of this blog post you ask? Well, I just want to share that I used to have a 100% success rate in detecting Hubbostrich scams. This time I failed, I was scammed into thinking that it was purely his innocent choice of wine for the dinner we have had just discussed.

I should be more attentive. Clue number one, there's no way he remembers informations as trivial as those. And the way he said was a tad too coy. "Red blots"? It is actually called Red. "Something Catholic?" It is from St. Francis Winery. Clue number two, it was not more than two seconds between my question of the wine whereabout and when he found the targeted wine.

You know, Bibi, Tiger Xinda never makes the same mistake twice. She definitely will detect scam-in-progress better next time.

Eat This, Bibi!

My flightless avian spousal unit/sidekick and I love thriller political drama movie. All hell breaks loose when we watched The Ghost Writer the first time this past Saturday. We just could not help to watch it again two more times within the next 24 hours. Note: those two more times watching were with caption turned on for greater clarity.

In between times of the day we were not concentrating on the movie, we both turned to IMDB for its user forum using our respective laptops. Hubbostrich kept yelling stuff at some of the posts, while I kept my cool and reading. The next morning, he even started his day perusing more postings on the movie. Yes, he was totally fixated. Everything about the movie fascinates him but the story line, the parallel to real world politics, the characters, and the ending got his most attention.

The highest point to me about this movie was this dialogue between Hubbostrich and yours truly. I was laying down in the sofa with my laptop munching on some chocolate while Hubbostrich was getting all worked up by his passion for the movie. If we were to connect an EEG machine to him, we could probably see his brain operating at its fullest capacity.

Hubbostrich: "See, they needed to hire a smart ghost writer. They are not going to hire you [pointing at me], they are going to hire me [pointing at himself]."

I: "What? Are you saying you're smarter than me? [Proceeding to choke him.]"

Hubbostrich: "Ouch, stop, you're hurting me."

All I am going to comment is that a smart person should never proclaims his/her smartness because you know there is somebody who is smarter than you and you will be left feeling foolish about yourself. Furthermore, the nature of our relationship as man and wife is best left to the character of Maria Portokalos, "The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants."

All in all, we both really love the movie and that is all that matter.

Hubbostrich Bashing # 258

I was simply saying thank you for this birthday present by posting it on T******.



Little did I know that hilarity ensued from my presyush followers.

@d***s******: @xinda_ woopitty whoo! wait, why is hubbostrich shirtless behind you?
@i***a*h***: @xinda_ @d***s****** AHAHAHAHA!! PHOTOBOMB!!!

In my defense, it was really hot, notice the sliding door was wide opened. Also, that's pretty much how Hubbostrich rolls and with a beer glass in his hand. Oh, my big fat redneck marriage.

Early Marital Problem

Husband is supposed to start writing his paper and dissertation once he's moved out here with me. I can only demand some progress, right? So, I texted him this yesterday morning while I was at work.

Daily progress report starts today!

His reply a couple hours later,

LOL I am at airport now.

What? He is not going back to Texas, is he? Suddenly, the chorus of one of the popular songs from lagu cengeng genre played in the background, "pulangkan saja, aku pada ibuku atau ayahku, u u u u [Roughly translated: please just take me back to my parents'].

I immediately picked up the phone and called him. It was improbable, but I just want to confirm the joke. He didn't answer.

Scenarios floating on the back of my mind, who's gonna make my coffee tomorrow morning, and, dang, it's gonna be lonely tonight.

The guy texted back not long after and reported that he was biking on a trail near the apartment. The end of the trail lead to the south part of the airport. But he did wanted to know what I was thinking about his first text. LOL.

I love you and your sense of humor, Mr. Ostrich. And thus born the term hubbostrich.

Yawn

A couple friend of ours got pregnant. She had this splitting headache for months and finally gave up to see a doctor, a cousin of hers.

"Dude, you don't know you are pregnant?" says Doctor Cousin after she was done examining her. My friend had been carrying four months without realizing there is a fetus growing.

My friend is a typical happy-go-lucky. At least around that time, she sure had a certain uneasiness about the pregnancy. It is long due. They have been married for almost four years and have been together longer. Both sides of the family have been crying for grand baby all those years.

When I told husband the story, he said, "Well, it sure is cheaper than IVF."

"You are mean. Don't say that, we might need it." This is after he spelled out what IVF stands for.

"Yeah, I know."

Our conversations these days are typical of married people. It revolves around planning a family which right now mostly consists of babies and house. I have melodramatic tendency around these two topics.

"Maybe we should move out of California, there's no way we can afford anything here."

"Of course, we can. I will get a good job and we can start saving."

"Yeah, we can, but not on my time line."

"Gee, you are like one those people who want to drive a Beemer."

"What? I don't want a luxury car, I drive a [insert expletive] Saturn."

"No, I mean, you are just set to have a house."

"Yeah, it's the American dream, isn't it."

"OK, maybe we will move out California. Take it easy, Tiger."

I, for once, think it is a wife's job to drive her husband forward. We hope we will be okay eventually, it looks like it will be a bumpy road ahead.

PS:
Re fertility, even Facebook agrees with me. LoL. Are you married? Are you in your 30s? Do you need to get pregnant? Do you want bubbles with that (since this is CA)?

Ms. Behavin

Husband put his furnitures on sale on Craigslist. He is finally moving out here with me.



He has a lot of reponses. He forwarded one of them to me.


So, I texted him.
"LOL. You pass the test."

He didn't response, so I called him while bursting in laughs.

Yeah, I am one misbehaving wife. LoL. He didn't fully grasp that he's being pranked by his own lovely wife.

#tellingonsecretivehusband

I am telling you a dark secret.

Yeah, what?

It's what I think about 60% of the time.

Go on.

That I am unique, there's no one else like me.

Wow. I thought that is like 10% of what you think all the tine. The other 90% being...so, now you switch.

Well, now I have it on a regular basis...

Wow. LoL.

Still Depressed

While we are still talking about the depression episode, I figured I needed to record tonight. In attempt to clear my mind, I dragged myself this evening to a neighboring market place. There are a nice grocery store, fast food restaurants, cafes, bakeries and many small businesses in the area. It is quite a convenience. So I walked across the manicured neighborhood. Blooming agapanthus greeted me all the way. I even smelled some fresh flowery scent in the air.

At the store, I picked up a couple of odd ends of stuff, mainly junk food, and rented a DVD from the box. This evening, it was 2012. I had had strong premonition about the movie, not only on the cheesiness of the story but also on the non-sense science, it was confirmed. At least, the shrimp burrito was a perfect dinner. At the end, I feel the need to neutralize the built up negativity. I found that endless dose of The Muppet Show was just the answer.

Yes, there is little difference in my life two months into the marriage. Husband, we both know, I need you here pronto, lest, I am going crazy.

Married Life

We were watching this, totally not my cup of tea, by the way. The scene was a guy proposing to a girl.

"What more do you want?" The man character said after the whole walla walla.

Yeah, what more do you want? Husband said to me.

"A house...and a baby," I fluttered my eyelashes and ooggled my eyes. He rolled his eyes.