Drive a Great Bargain

After reading this article I felt like wow...we've been doing this for years. All of our cars except for the Honda was used. More recently J's skills with cars have become very good at reviewing used cars and knowing what parts will need to be replaced. We've been doing what the article suggests for a few years now and it definitely has saved us tons of money. What's funny is I start eyeing cars this year and plan for what it would cost in 5 years to get used! It follows some of the ideas I posted about before regarding self-control.

I was in for a real treat when relatives asked us to join them for a day shopping of shopping in Shenzhen, China. It was not at all what I expected. Living in Causeway Bay, I thought living in the middle of meter upon meter of shopping centers and boutique shops was overwhelming. It did not compare to the sheer density and hustling going on at Shenzhen that day.

“The tea is good, but not great. I would pay $150 for a quarter kilo for each tea.”
“It’s a special tea from very special tea regions of China. $200 for both teas and I’ll throw in some rosehips.”
“No there are six of us who want to buy. We’re firm.”

The sales assistant starts to ponder the offer. We put our bags of tea down on the chair and begin to walk out. The sales assistant begins to casually tug the lead negotiator’s arm and have her return to her seat. We walk back to our seats.

“$175 is all I can offer. We will loose money with such a discount.”
“Ok then.”

Ok hard to believe but Daylight Savings begins this weekend. With all the rain recently it's even harder to believe that we're in spring. My biggest challenge right now is getting out of my dark days...with all the bad weather I'm wondering if it's affecting my mood and add to that my miscarriage...ok someone tell me I'm not just having a bad nightmare.

I know I can control this and I've started back at the gym...even signed up for boot camp again. And to top it off I'm on Weight Watchers again...but I've noticed that with the emotional rollercoaster from February I'm still a mess of sorts...and cooking all our meals don't help...gained some weight(about 10lbs) and it's so darn difficult...it doesn't help that I like to read food blogs like this on cupcakes. Let's see the results in 3 months.

Went to Little Fox Theatre's bi-monthly blues jam session and had a wonderful time. A nice mix of young and old performers. I was just happy to be enjoying live music in the middle of the week. Reminded me of my fun days with K/D and others hanging out at Spag's.

In all my many days of attending blues and jazz fesitvals today was the first time I saw a woman perform in a blues jam session. And what was more interesting was she as playing the drums in a long skirt. I would have never guessed she was a drummer by the way she dressed or looked. She looked more like a librarian or grandmother type and she was pretty good. I hope to see her perform again it was quite fun.

So we took a 2 day vacation into the city since J was off for the whole week and we wanted to spend some quality time together since the miscarriage. It's been a very challenging few weeks but I'm actually having a difficult time trying to get out of a funk with a cold layered on with food poisoning or motion sickness. I wanted so bad to just spend a quiet day hanging in the city but couldn't shake the nausea. All in all it was a nice time with our former housesitter, J's cousin who put us up at the Hotel Nikko, and quiet time together. Now I need to catch up on housework and laundry ;)

Dooce: When a repressed urge becomes the worst case scenario

I guess I needed something to feel like in control during the ordeal of the past few weeks. So I chopped my hair shorter than shoulder length. It was just past the middle of my back but always tied it into a ponytail since I was always at the gym, running around doing errands with little or no time to "fix" it up. So now that's it short I just literally wash and go. I think I want it a little shorter but not sure yet.

(Stephan's Quintet,from NASA.gov)

Lou and Peter just announced they signed a contract for PB3. They want to make sure this edition is relevant and also looking at things ahead.

Please fill out this survey by March 18 to put in your $0.02 about changes to the IA field. It's only 2 questions. Thanks!

I've been reading all I can about miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, etc. Mostly to arm myself and also to help me grieve and get through the lose. I've kept myself busy these last few weeks and in the last few days even started a knitting project. Knitting has been quite a nice retreat since when I'm working on a project I can get so focused that things that would distract me would just disappear. I'm grateful to RP for getting me started again after a few years JS showed me. Oscars show yesterday and a load of ironing helped me get through yesterday...and today this article of a first-hand account by a reporter on miscarriages has given me more to know that I'm not alone in all of this.

The last 3 weeks have been quite challening spiritually, emotionally and of course physically. I found out yesterday after the last blood result(I've been going every 2 days for 3 weeks) that I am no longer pregnant. The medication worked and I do not have to have surgery. If the medication did not work I would have had to lose one of my fallopian tubes. I want to thank everyone again for the cards, emails, phone calls and caring thoughts and for your support during this time.

Right now still healing but to keep me from going crazy I've been surfing online alot which is unheard of for me since I actually don't like being online doing nothing. Some of the things that have had me rolling on the floor laughing and making my sides hurt in a good way:

1. The BC
Boston College parody of the tv hit _The OC_

2. Yo Yo Man
I couldn't stop saying "wow!"

3. MySpace: The Movie
Parody of the hit online social network site MySpace