amstalder

Thanks, everyone. Seriously thought I'd never get to this point (so dramatic). HA! I'm planning to go to grad school the second we get back to the states. Good idea

As of yesterday, I'm officially a college grad! Patrick even surprised me a with a graduation at home with all our friends since I couldn't go to my actual graduation in the states. Now what am I supposed to do with all my free time?

That's how it worked for me and my husband. The upfront simple relationship does in fact exist

You've got a rig! What's your point? It's busy collecting dust along side his... when ya gonna come get them and go jump? January 2013. Or maybe May. We'll see.

You've got a rig! What's your point?

This is the problem that I have. It's not the celebration, it's how the celebration has been bastardized by the economic interests and how the public has fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Buy! Buy! BUY!!!!! Hook: Christmas is a time for giving. Line: Giving presents shows you care. Sinker: If you don't buy, you're an uncaring Scrooge of a bastard. Same with marriage. BUY a diamond! Bigger is better! Hook: Show her your love her. Line: Buy her a diamond. Sinker: If you don't, you're an asshole. You know, I told my husband not to buy me an engagement ring when we started talking marriage... I told him outright I'd prefer an engagement rig instead.... All he took from that convo was "no diamonds, please"

+1 This is how I want it to be when we have kids.

Seriously! You're an hour from me! How long are you in Korea? And sorry, no recommendations. I have not made it to Suwon yet. ETA: If you do come to Seoul, I have plenty of recommendations.

I have to say the break up period is definitely awkward. So is bringing your new boyfriend to your home DZ. In general, I'd say date outside your primary friend group, whether it's skydivers or whuffos. It sucks when your friends have to choose between you after an ugly break-up. And seriously, a SKYDIVER gave you an ultimatum?

I deleted you off of my FB list because you didnt come and vist I wondered why you deleted me, too On a side note, I do want to visit. However, I'm saving for grad school, so trips are limited.

I wondered why you deleted me, now I feel better! OMG! I posted before I did it to everyone why I had to bail. Now I feel bad!! I thought everyone knew work was stalking us. I was in the same boat! I thought we all pissed you off somehow.... I've challenged myself to a week off of facebook, so expect a request from me next week

+1

Thanks for the very extensive review!!

Have one of those. They are cool! My living room is huge, so I always feel like I'm missing spots when I do the floors. We saw a furminator at a local pet shop here - $70! So, we're ordering one from amazon. Hopefully it'll be here soon

We did, but it's not for everyone. We've talked about whether or not we'll keep jumping when kiddos come along. I think Patrick will, but I haven't decided yet. I guess it really depends on my skill level at that time... If I get pregnant in the near future, I know I'd wait til they are a bit older...

I don't think I'll be complaining about my size for awhile after seeing the height and weight of some of the ladies on here. I did get really lucky, though. I found a used rig that both fit me and the right CANOPY for my skill level (took me about a year...yeah I really waited that long to buy). When I was searching, it wasn't finding a small rig that seemed to be the problem, it was finding a small rig that didn't hold an itty bitty teeny weeny canopy that was the problem. Now, if only I lived somewhere where we could jump... sigh

She's cute. What kind of dog is she?

I just signed up (you know, I need something to entertain me while I put off my homework for a while longer ). We'll see how it goes

Oh, yes. A whole different beast. The first time Dawnmarie took me into the city, the sweet a demure cutie transformed into a horn honking, bird flipping, foul mouthed native. It was awesome to behold. Now that stuff doesn't fly in LA. Long ago I figured out that the general politeness of LA driving was because you'll get shot for pulling those hi-jinks on LA roads and highways. Thus creating a more polite society. I was sitting here reading through the thread, and it took me a moment to remember that the no-rules driving game isn't actually normal in most parts of the world. Complete disregard for the majority of the traffic laws has become completely normal for me. It's amazing how none of the rules seem to apply to anyone here except for two: 1) keep your ass out of the bus lane, and 2) no left turn on green, EVER. Everything else is fair game. We bought our car from a American whose family moved here about thirty years ago. He told us that his father recently went back to the states for a business trip. He flew into LAX, rented a car, and hit the road. After about 10 minutes of Korean style driving, he was pulled over. He threw a few hundred dollars at the cop not really thinking about where he was, and was promptly asked to step out of the car. I guess it took a while to explain to the cop that he had forgotten that the traffic and law enforcement interactions are 100% different in this part of the world.

Anyone using it? Thoughts? Think it will overtake facebook?

I hope one day you find your perfect woman.

Is she full size?? or a puppy? We watched our friends dachshund last month (he was a bratwurst... 25+ lbs), and he shed a lot! I want to get Maggie a small friend when we move stateside. thanks everyone for your tips. I think I'll order a furminator soon. Can't do anything about the couches right now, since they don't belong to us, but we'll probably buy leather. We have a Dyson, might look into the roomba. We'll probably look into the grain-free diet and see where that leads (she's a finicky eater, so maybe that will help her there, too).

One of my cats is a short haired Siamese and the Furminator actually gets a lot of hair off him too. I'm sure the Furminator would do wonders for Maggie. I realize the way I wrote that sounds like I think no brush would work on her; that's not what I meant at all. I was just so nervous to start her out with an effective brush, since they're rather sharp looking. Her brush just sucks.

Shah, do you use your Roomba on hard floors? Patrick has been asking for one since we moved here in January (for some reason, he has a thing for vacuums, yet never actually cleans the floors). The only carpet we have in this apartment are two tiny bathmats outside each bathroom. The rest of the place is hardwood. We rolled up the living room rug when we adopted Maggie since we weren't sure if she would pee in the apartment out of nervousness. I know I'm able to keep our floors cleaner since it's all hardwood, but it still seems next to impossible to keep clean (and I felt this way before we got maggie, too). We'll have to check out the furminator. We were hesitant to get one or to get one of the "pin" pet brushes. WE do brush her a bit, but it's a like a double sided hairbrush and it hardly picks any hair off her. Thanks for all the suggestions! Oh, and Cornholio. There was a malamute and a husky that were in desperate need of rescuing over the summer (they'd each been at the shelter for more than a year and were horribly underweight), that we tried to adopt. Come to find out that our landlord has a strict no husky policy. Evidently, the tenant before last had a husky that she didn't have the time to care for (single soldier), and allowed the apartment to look something like your backyard. The building lost two other tenants because the hair was travelling from our apartment to the downstairs apartments and causing health problems. Gross, right?

So we've had our cute little doggy for about a month now. She's super sweet, but a total teenager (she's a couple years old). Anyways, how do you deal with the pet hair?? It seems like no matter how often I vacuum and mop, I can't ever seem to get up all the hair. I just vacuumed, and the minute I turned off the vacuum, a pile of her hair blew in front of me. Is this a battle I can't win, or there some sort of trick to this?