Bad things come in threes....

Last week was just one of those weeks that everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I sure look forward to this next week - it just can't get any worse.

#3 - Work. I can't say much about this bad event. All I can say is AHHHHH. I just hope I can find a remedy to the problem that popped up last week without a major detour.

#2 - Cars. It has been very cold so it is plug in the car time. I am used to this - it is a pain but it makes my car happy. The other day when it was around -20 I hopped in the car to find multiple warning lights lit up: the check engine, trac off, VSC(?) and maintenance. Luckily one of them is just the reminder to change my oil but the rest require a diagnostics to be run on my car. Good thing I opted to extend that factory warranty on my car.

#1 - Home ownership. ARRRGH! Friday morning Niagara Falls hit my kitchen. Yep, that's right the tub decided to leak right into the kitchen. My newly painted kitchen ceiling......after being told by multiple plumbers that they could not make it out for 2-3 weeks and just shut off the water I was ready to throw in the towel. Luckily a friend suggested that I call a member of the ward with a construction background to see if he could at least help me with a quick fix. After multiple phone calls he showed up at my house with a plumber around 8 p.m. on Saturday night. The nice pretty ceiling now has a hole in it the size of a 3 ring binder. I wanted to cry when they were cutting up the ceiling. I am told the problem is an easy fix and they are coming to fix it all up tomorrow after work. Apparently some gasket on the overflow drain is broken - this happens after 25+ years. What compounded the problem is that the builders never sealed around the overflow drain. So every time a shower has been taken since it busted water has been dripping into the ceiling. Friday was just the last straw and it decided to open the flood gates into the kitchen. Good thing the office has a shower. Here are some pictures of the nice hole in my not so nicely painted ceiling.

This week is bound to be better. So I decided to get in a better mood by getting into the holiday spirit last night and putting up my Christmas tree in the middle of my construction zone.

Santa's House

Yes, I visited Santa's house today in the North Pole. Don't believe me - here are the pictures. I might live in the cold but I can go see Santa any day with a short drive. And yes, Santa was at his house. So was Mrs. Claus - she was knitting a scarf.

Approaching North Pole. You take the Santa Claus Lane exit.

Turning on to St. Nicholas Lane. This is where his house is. He needs lots of parking for all the visitors he gets.


Here is it - the Santa Claus House. You can even see his address if you look carefully.


No trip to Santa's house is complete without checking out the reindeer.

What is Snow?

This blog is dedicated to my cute nephew, Carson. Yesterday he asked me, what is snow? Trying to explain it to a three year old who doesn't have a concept of what it is was a little hard. I told him it was like frozen rain. But that did not work too well. So I told him that it was very cold and was on the ground. That it was so cold it would be like holding ice cubes. To which he responded that he did not think it sounded so good or that he liked it.

Carson, snow is white. It is very cold. You will probably never see it in Texas - so you need to come and visit me.

So Carson's mommy please show him the pictures of what snow is. I took these pictures yesterday at 3 p.m. Yes, that is the sunset in the background.

This is a picture of my living room in progress. I love the wall colors. I just finished painting all the baseboards and need to get them attached. Then just touch up the nail holes. It is about time this project is coming to a close. Then all I have to do is find a couch, which could be hard in Fairbanks.

Oh yeah, I also need to get new blinds so I can lose the sheets over the windows.

Power Tools

Power tools are great! In the past week I have used an electric saw, power nail gun, and drill. They have sure made life easier. Here is a photo of some of the home repairs. More photos will come. I promise. I need one of me and the nail gun.


I had a very interesting experience this weekend. One of my friends convinced a few of us to go contra dancing. It is really glorified version of line square dancing. You don't dance in square but it is pretty much the same concept in a line. Crazy thing is that it is quite popular and there are 2 dances a month. It was fun after you get over the twangy music.

Home repairs.

So I have been told that am have been a slacker for not updating my blog. First, I want to say that the only reason I created my blog was to keep everyone up to date during my trip and to post photos when I returned. But this being said, I have been told that many family members look forward to reading about my happenings here in the frozen land so I will try to update it a little more often.

What have I been doing the last few months? Painting, painting and more painting. While in Taiwan a water pipe that connects to the building just north of my building burst. Of course, it was right under my living room. I did not learn about this until after I had been home a week. I had not noticed the bubble in the floor because it was under the coffee table. I had to go to work a few hours after we landed so I was playing catch up on my sleep. I had stumbled a couple of times over it but thought the rug was just messed up. My sweet neighbors told me about it after telling me that I have great friends to come and clean up the mess. Thanks Shannon and Adam for taking care of my mess.

So needless to say the floor had to be completely replaced. I figured if I was going to have someone come in to fix it, I would just get the 25 + year old linoleum replaced in the kitchen and bathroom at the same time. And it would be a prime time to paint. I could make a mess and not worry about getting paint on the flooring. So after picking out the flooring and paint, which took forever, I started to paint. It took many weekends and evenings after work to complete the task. Yes, I painted every last drop myself. I had many offers for help and told my friends I'd love their help, but of course they always found something more fun to do. It was summer, so I can't blame them for wanting to take advantage of the little good weather we had. I learned I have muscles in places that I didn't know about.

I had to paint the ceiling 3 times. That might seem excessive but it was necessary. It was originally cream and one coat of white just didn't cut it. I finished the second coat and was feeling quite impressed with myself when I saw a big bubble in one of the corners. Come to find that one of the many previous owners did a sloppy patch job. aka - slap some wallpaper over it and paint. So I had to fix it. When I was done patching and painting the hole area it was too noticeable. Which meant painting it again. You can still tell where the patch job is if you know where to look, but it is much better than having a hole the size of my hand covered by wallpaper.

I can't wait to get my house back to normal. Yesterday I cut about 1/2 of the trim. It needs to be painted and and then get the rest cut. Once it gets mounted I will be ready to do the final touch ups and move back some of the furniture. Minus running the saw to cut the trim and a little help moving furniture I have done it all myself. Lowes and I have become great friends. I think I spend all my money there. Between supplies, new washer and dryer (of course the old one decided to leak when it was reinstalled), trim, etc, etc. For a while you would have thought that I had a part time job there because I was there every day.

After the trim is up it is time to put in the final touches. I might even hang up a picture or too. Now I just have to find a new couch. I have a very old one that was given to me when I first moved here. It is time to actually grow up and get one. Unfortunately, we have a lack of stores here. And the ones that we do have don't have much variety. I am not in the market for a brown leather couch so it might take a while.

I will take photos of my living room once I get the trim up. Hopefully this weekend.

Tawain Photos - Part III

Elections were March 22. There were hundreds of these trucks that went around promoting the candidates. KMT v. DPP. The KMT won.
People come here to burn fake money. Offerings.
Hungry?
These are little dried fish. They put these in fried rice, on top of soup, etc. Yuck!
Some more fun things I had to eat.

And more slimy sea things we were served.

Fish market. Check out the fish that are on the floor.

Check out the long pinky fingernails. It is a sign that you do not have a hard labor job if you can grow them out. They also grow them so that it will make their pinky finger longer as they believe it is a sign that their children will be more prosperous.

Kim, Jacky and me.
Kim, Erica and me.

Taiwan uses every piece of land available. If there is not a building on it - they will be growing something. This a rice field next to housing. This is very common. You can see rice fields next to factories.

Every year they put these red papers around their doors. They are their wishes for the next year.

Raw fish anyone?

Huge green olives. Bee Larva in the background (left).

Becca about to taste the Bee Larva.

Tea ceremony at the Tai Chi library.

Solar powered street lights.

Monk.

Burning paper money.

Confucius Temple.

Inside Confucius temple.

Borris and Steven. (Lawyer's children.)

There are many trees that look like this.

Dessert? Try some flavored shaved ice with ice cream and topped with red beans.

Lots of stores in the bigger cities have English names. The lingerie shops were the best names. Like this one.

Getting foot massages.

Yet another dinner hosted by rotary clubs. They took us to a German restaurant and ordered everyone huge beers. Good thing I don't drink. There were others in the group were wishing they could say the same thing.

My visit to Justis Law Firm.

Taichung from Celia's house.

The mopeds all sneak into the front at red lights. So when the light turns green there is a rush of mopeds.

So many robes. Black - clerk. White Lawyer. Blue - Judge. Green - government attorney. Pink - prosecutor. There is also a red one for notaries.

You can hold the entire law of Taiwan in one hand.

Special room for secret witnesses.

Courtroom.

Litigation consultation for pro se parties.

Typical dress. Mask, helmet, jacket, boots and short skirts.

Drum performance at rotary district conference.

More fun things to eat.

Women who work outside are covered up. They do not want their skin to get any darker than it is. In fact they even use whitening agents in their face wash. I'll have to remember to take a picture of the face soap one of my hosts gave me.

More fun things to eat. Abalonie covered in mayo. Sliced spicy pork and some type of fried sea creature.

Tom making ink.

Tom writing Chinese calligeraphy.

Present from Tom.

Thirsty?