The NeW PrAwNKinG HoMe .. YuM..Yum

Snowed heavily

2012-01-21T23:20:00.001-05:00

Sat morning , it snowed heavily from 4am onwards.. and we did not want to venture out at all as it was ll slushy and dirty outside...but then again we had a dinner

we found this pair of spoons / fork set from Marshalls.. 29 each.. silver coated...

The snow on Monday morning..

kids just luv the snow.. they have been waiting for it...

Found a Korean Chili Paste which suits me... this!!!

Sat morning again snow.. a snow storm front arrived at 4am.. and snowed till 9am...

The cars all covered/blanketed with snow

On the way after lunch we stopped by the river .. the background is actuall a river.. Mohawk River.. and its all frozen and snow covered.

I hate when it did not snow enough.. the roads all become dirty and slushy.. the car is in a mess...

Ppl were out on another lake playing ice hockey... Round Lake..

Kids first experience standing on a frozen lake..weather was cold.. -10C... but getting used to the coldness now.. its normal to us...

Clinque

House Progress Jan 14

2012-01-14T23:58:00.003-05:00

dropped by our new home and progress has been fast...Kitchen cabinets are installed.. we also saw the exterior lightnings have all been installed .. flooring should be done this couple of weeks soon.

The back of the house.. , only the back stairs have not been installed yet..

The backyard looks big.. and we are planning to install a Deck later part of the year.. as we plan how to clear out the trees at the rear.. and also we will install a set of fence at the rear of the house.. to keep the animals out...

We had a 50USD gift card to be used in any restaurant in downtown Saratoga.. so we stopped by a place called Circus Cafe.. its a kids theme restaurant... we had just a BBQ Ribs and a Fish /Chips, 2 x hot chocolate and a bottle of IPA.. came up to 52USD.. thats why eating at these American Restaurant.. are ex... and i dun think we can eat like this every week.. the kids are also not use to the taste of the food..

Snow is here at last....

2012-01-12T23:35:00.001-05:00

Wed...Mrs was at the school with Marcus to pick up his homework.. he forgot to bring it home and mrs was furious.. she had to drive down to the school with him..

and also snapped some pics in the process.. His pic is on the school board this month.. Kid Character of the month..

His Rose Compass.. is the green compass above his head.. the schools puts into practise what they had taught them... by incoroparting with their art sessions..

Snow came on Thursday.. it snowed heavily thru the night.. and by day...it has 3 - 4 inches of snow

Kids were excited and also classes were cancelled for K class while Marcus's class started 2 hr later..due to the snowfall

Going to school at 11am instead of 9am..

Summary of some of the Christmas buyss

2012-01-09T09:54:00.001-05:00

More Christmas clearance items.. these were all just 10% of price sold during Christmas..all items here were less than 0,50USD

Legos... the 1st row are mostly 5USD.. good price..

Cars were all 7,50USD per box... a steal.. as these were 30SGD back home..

we picked up 2 of these cooling pads at 5USD each cause soon once we move to the new place, the kids would need laptops.. so this would be perfect for their desks.

Found this case laying on one of the shelves at Walmart.. amazing... it was 15USD.. i had refused to pay anything more than 10USD for the TouchPad case.. and i was still lacking one more case.. and this came along.. nice..

Our Bath and Body works item arrived... we were running out of shower foams.. so luckily came along the Bath Body works sale.. these were 2,50USD each down from a usual price of 12USD.. who in the right mind would pay 12USD for a bottle of 10oz shower gel..i would not..

Strawberry Shortcake.. this was further discounted and it was 7USD for 4 of them in a Target promo pack...

Lego 8097 Slave I ... got this set at a steal.. 39,90USD... its 199SGD in Singapore... crazy... will bring all the extra sets back home and place it at my parents home to be sold..

Now they are a pair... 2,50USD each..

Weekend again

2012-01-08T23:37:00.002-05:00

Went to our fav chinese restaurant for lunch..

Trolleys.. do you return the trolleys to the bay at the parking lots??... here we noticed ppl are lazy.. and with heavy gust of wind occuring, these trolleys might hit your car... like this bunch of trolleys all clustered in a grp..

Mrs trying out 4.5" heels... she says cant walk!!!... lol...

Fall setting sun... lovely...

Its the 15th today.. and see how round and full the month is... so basically 15 from today.. it will be CNY...

The blue bears were the Christmas Clearance items .. 2.50USD each... initially we bought it at 5USD.. so when it dropped further.. we returned the ones we bought earlier.. and bought another pair cheaper.. :)

I started liking this mix.. Japanese Curry ... i can have Japanese Kari meal now..

Weekend

2012-01-07T21:33:00.001-05:00

Sat , we stopped by alone a lake which was near out place.. the whole lake was frozen... snapped some pics here..

Too bad the lake is not frozen thick enough.. as normally at this time of the yr.. there will be heaps of snowmobile zipping about on the lake...

Drove to a manual high pressure jet place to jet spray the under body of the car to clear it out of salt , salt is being used here on the East Coast on the interstate and roads here to prevent the roads from freezing up.. but it does the car no good.
5USD buys be 8min 30 sec of high powered jet spray..

The different modes to select..

The huge soft brush for you to scrub down your car.. which i did not use it on the body.. just on the rims / wheels to scrub off the grit and brake dust..

The car all washed spic and span.. especially the under body of the vehicle.. i gave it a thorough spraydown.

This would be the condition of the car if you dun wash it every 2 weeks...it will be covered with Salt spray..it does no good to the car and body

ContourRoam HD Mounting in Car

2012-01-07T08:58:00.002-05:00

Mounting the CoutourRoam HD as a in car Camera
You guys should be aware i bought this camera off Amazon at 90USD a cool 50% off the normal price.. it was a steal considering the specs of the camera..
I was searching and finding the cheapest form of mounting this cam in the car .. and buying the original mount incar from Contour makes no sense, that mount cost 30USD.. i wont throw my $$ this way.. so i scoured amazon..

And true enough.. patience will always be rewarded if you look hard enough.. came upon this seller selling a Handphone mount to be attached to the windshield.. but on closer inspection of the mount, the clamplike device can be unscrewed and the threads looks to fit the camera.. so i took a gamble...if it does not fit.. then i will return the item..

So i ordered one pc first.. and true enough.. it fits...perfectly

The Camera mounted in car..

Recorded and edited the song in it... :)

The boy did it too!!

2012-01-06T22:20:00.001-05:00

Marcus did well.. he also achieved being recognise as the Character of the Month for Jan 2012.. he was so happy as the previous time when Rachel received it, he was a bit jealous of Rachel's achievement. We explained to him Rachel achieved it on her own.. and you can do it too.

Seems he did put in effort and achieved it also.. we are proud of him..and proud of Rachel too... for being recognised for the efforts and good character

My toy arrived.. TK-41

2012-01-04T23:18:00.000-05:00

At Last I committed to a purchase of a High Powered 800 lumens TK41 LED flashlight.. this torch is the god of all torches.. the mother of brightness .. and furthest throw of light achieved with a handheld battery powered light.

It uses 8AA batts.. and i think i will use Sanyo Enelope batts on this light once my batts run out..

The heart of the torch.. the CREE XM-L LED

Tested in the kids room with the lights turn off..

Flashlight powered on... see the "white" of it.. this torch basically throws a beam of light into the sky when you point it upwards...

Misc stuffs..

2012-01-03T21:21:00.000-05:00

I have started trying Alternative to the chili Sauce from home... trying out the various Korean stuff till i find one i like..

we Still have some home land stuff and try to use these sparingly

Christmas Clearance started straight on Dec 26.. and we have been checking out the discounts..

These bowls , we picked them up at 50cents each.. :) for the kids to use for next yr Christmas

Snack food. $1.50 each normal was 4USD$..

My Legos again.. these were cleared at 1.20USD from a normal of 4USD..i could not find any at 90% discount later when the discount dropper further as all packs were mostly grabbed at 75% off already which was a good price considering..

The Discount cycle here normally goes thru this pattern... 50% , 75% and finally 90%... all durations are normally 1-2 wks dependent on stores before it moves to the next higher discount %. I Luv the way they operate here..

I might return this item.. it was a impulse buy...

The Meteor Game was a steal at 5.40USD... cant get this price anywhere..

I bought this car polymer Sealant for the body work.. its a polymer based wax.. much like AutoGlym.. but thicker layer after buffing off when it has cured..

I think the shine is better than the AutoGlym Body Resin Wax i used to use.. i still have some of that left.. and trying to finish it.

Car products are cleared at amazing prices too.. like this bottle of Meguiars Gold Class Car Wash..1.26USD.. amazing... but there was only one bottle on the shelf.

Also picked up two 1:10 scale size RC truck for the kids in different Freq.. 14USD each... normal price of these monsters were 50USD..

Day 3 Back home..

2012-01-01T22:58:00.003-05:00

Sunday... time to make the drive back.. but we went back to the shop near the whirlpool lookout to have a pic taken again.. why... cause Princess was throwing her tantrum last night and did not want any pics taken...

cleared the Canadian Customs.. and welcome to NY...

Went to the American Falls Park.. where you can get up close to the American side of the falls.

this was how close you could get to... beside the falls itself.. and you can actually see the drop down...

in the background are the Canadian side of the hotels / casinos..

we spotted 2 rainbows here... niceeee...

on the way back via Buffalo .. a good 5hr drive back..

stopped by Walmart to get some fruits and snacks along the way...

Finally arrived back at 4pm.. still enough time to do a meal outside and then head on home... tired and happy with a fruitful trip...

Day 2 : Canada .. the Falls...Canada side

2011-12-31T23:55:00.006-05:00

Day 2... after a good night's sleep we were all fresh... the grand hotel fireplace... there is a pool behind this fireplace and Rachel spotted it.. and insisted that we should have brought her swimsuit.. which we felt it was too cold for her to go for a dip.

Me and Marcus proceeded to the nearby Mc for breakfast as he was hungry.. Rachel was still asleep with mrs..

We finished our breakfast and was back at the hotel.. and guess what Rachel was still sleeping.. so me and Marcus waited along the corridor ..

Finally she was up.. i had to go wake her up.. and tell her we were leaving soon...

tot it was early in town for any of the shops.. we wanted to snap a pic without too many ppl in the background.. and we got just that...

not many ppl about except for one or two groups of ppl heading for the bus stops or hotels...

looking for a reasonably priced parking was a challenge.. hotel parking was 40CAD per day.. and opened spaced lots were priced from 10 to 15 CAD... in the end we parked at Skylon Tower.. the tower which takes you up for a bird's eye view of the Falls.

you can catch a small glimpse of the US section of the Falls.

Background is the America Falls with the Bridal Veil Falls (smaller waterfall on the right)

At last Niagara Falls also one of the sights me and spouse has long dreamed about visiting. We had did it.

This misty spray of mist.. is the Canadian Horseshoe Falls..

time for lunch so off we went.. back to the Chinese restaurant which we had our dinner last night when we arrived.

After Lunch , we explored the shops about Falls Ave and the kids wanted to ride this ride.. ride that ride...

in the end we decided on the Ferris Wheel... to have a bird's eye view of the place

This's the route back to the US.

Seriously this place is boring.. one day exploring it is enough... but with kids we spent 2 nights here. In the afternoon , we decided to let the kids have a go at the Arcade center along falls avenue

After the arcade it was mid afternoon.. what else to do.. we decided to go visit the Whirlpool of Niagara. Walked back to pick our car and off we went...

Came upon Great Wolf Lodge.. its a indoor water theme park

We Arrived at Whirlpool lookout.. where supposedly if it was Summer /Autumn the tourist rail across the gorge would be open.. but cause of Fall season , it was closed.

This was the spot where a whirlpool would form if the water flow was high enough.. you can spot one or 2 mini whirlpool..

the tram way which brings ppl across the gorge...

Enough for the day... we checked out another chinese place and the food was just as great... amazing the food here.. as mostly are HK ppl ... they luv staying in Canada

2011

2011-12-31T23:51:00.006-05:00

its the year where i only spent like less than 30 days in SGP ... Me and family have either been in Europe or the US. It has been a interesting and exciting year in all.. Made new friends.. travelled heaps in Europe covered most of the places spouse had dreamt of visiting when we got married. This was such a good opptunity and the many places we visited in Europe .. mostly you would not be able to do it in a 16 day Europe Tour.

It has been a fruitful year for me and family. Kids also enjoyed themselves alot and made many new friends. The two kids have also bonded closer with my worklife balance in Europe.. they get to see me more often than when i was working in SGP.

Regrets?.. no regrets to date.. except that we did not visit have the time to visit Turkey / Italy / Eygpt / Greece..other than that all was good.

Relocated from Germany to the Us and started our new life here. Many fond memories of Europe when we left there.. mixed feelings... did not really missed SGP as were fell in luv with the European way of living.. slower pace.. and having more family time for me with the kids/wife.

2011 was also the yr i experienced the first hand of shopping on BlackFriday.. the grand sale in the US here... many deals.. and then you realised how expensive is SGP compared to US. Std of living in SGP is too expensive. Example Utilities bill.. my monthly bill here in the US is just ~ 40USD compared to SGP monthly bill of ~150USD. Day to day essentials are also so much lower here in the US compared to SGP.

I am now typing this from Niagara Falls Ontario.. here in Canada for a short trip

did not capture all moments of the kids.. but i try to as much as possible with the montage of the kids below....

Some of the friends the kids had made in DRS Germany over the brief 10 months there...

Day 1 RoadTrip to Niagara Falls , Canada..

2011-12-30T23:24:00.003-05:00

Friday was a day i cleared one of my vacation days.. so we decided to go to Canada for the Friday night and Sat night returning on Sunday to Albany NY.

I booked the hotel in case of the long weekend holiday.. which some ppl might have taken leave and has the same plans as us.. furthermore it was the begining of a new year on Sunday.. Jan 1 2012..

Bags all loaded to the car.. and there was a snow shower which started at 6am in the morning.. dusted the whole place in a sheet of white... lovely white..

All all dress up and excited for the trip.. first trip in the US after 6 months of arrival.. even mrs commented that she felt packing for this trip was difficult as it seems she has not done it so frequently since the time in Germany.

Lunch , we stopped at Syracuse for lunch.. and based on the GPS it routed us to the nearest Chinese place... the food was good not too shabby..

There was a park nearby which we took some pics there.. and also to let the kids have a go at snow which this season was a bit odd.. nows Jan 2012 and still no snow accumulation... in upstate NY... you will always hear ppl telling you how bad upstate NY will be in winter.. and this winter has been totally the opposite..

Along the Thruway or I90 (Interstate 90) you have to pay a toll.. the Locals call this Interstate the Thruway... so if the locals do not understand you what is I90... say Thruway..

The tollcard issued after passing the toll booth.. tells you the price for each exit from where you entered from.. we will be ending our drive at exit 50 Buffalo.

Along the way , we exited at Exit 41 for the Premium outlets at Waterloo.

Just bought one item and we were on our way to the Falls. Finally after another 3 hrs of drive we arrived at the bridges connecting to the Falls.

The parking spot for the American portion of the falls.. we will be back here on New Yrs day when we make the return trip back to home.

Crossing the popular Rainbow Bridge to Canada..

Total distance traveled 320 miles from where we are to Canada

At the Canadian border control.. where we had to show our passport and get it stamped for entry.

Kids were hungry and proceeded to look for a spot to eat. Found a restaurant called Lotus Garden.. Lotus Garden 5039 Centre Street, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 3N6, Canada +1 905-356-7550. Sorry no pics of the food as we gobbled it down all quickly.. lol

we proceeded to explore the shops along Clifton Hill Road.. where its lined with movieland.. Ripley's Believe it or not.. etc... many entertainment places for the family night out. It has a sort of Las Vegas feel to it.. a mini Las Vegas.

finally we proceeded to our hotel to rest our tired body.. it was about a mile from the town center..

Consumer Rights here

2011-12-28T07:32:00.002-05:00

the policy here in the US is real strange... they really preached on consumer rights here... i dun get these rights back home in Singapore. Once you bought it.. you are stuck with it..

Really liked it, cause it gives me choices if i see the same item cheaper elsewhere i can return the initial item i purchased at a higher price to the store..

I have been returning items to Target and Walmart till to date...

Return Policy Store to Store varies.. so check out the policy instores.

example 1: I bought a StarWars Advent Set during Black Friday sales on Target.com thinking it was a fair price.. Total with Tax ~32USD. But recently in Walmart the same item was going for 19.90... I took my receipt from Target and went to the store with items to do a refund/return. took me less than 5 mins in and out of the store.

example 2: A week ago, just prior to the stores having clearance , i just wanted to make sure the stuff i had was avaliable. So i bought online first as the discount was 30% only... but on Monday 26 Dec , i went in store early to grab some of the 50% discounted items.. and got most of the items i wanted... so i started returning those i bought online to the store.. returned about 70USD worth of items... hehehe

Post Christmas sale...

2011-12-27T22:08:00.007-05:00

Post Christmas sale.. i was up early and was down at Walmart and Target at 6am checking out the sales... Walmart.. nothing much to get... but Target... great discount..

Many of the items i bought last wk online.. were cheaper... so i bought what i needed.. at the store first... example... 24" Wreath... was 12,50 compared to original Price of 25,00... i bought online priced at 17.25.. so that wreath i bought from store will be returned and getting a refund for the online purchase.. :)..

Bought Seasonal Lightnings from Philips.. bought a set of Snow Flakes color changing LED type for 50% @11,99. Also a set of Philips LED Candy Canes.. .. In the end i returned the stuffs i bought online(1x24"Wreath for the main door, 3 sets of LED Candy cane sets... i regretted buying these.. made in china ...cheap stuff...).. refunded a total of nearly 70USD... in the end... i bought the better built Philips LED lightnings.. The exterior power cords were also 50%... these were heavy duty ones by Westinghouse... 40Ft long... 5usd per set.. i bought 2 sets.... and a couple of other items.. like the Philips Battery operated LED snowflake.. with suction cup.. to be stuck on the window.. just nice to fit our 2 side panels..

Penguin Wreath Holder..i luv this.. cute...6,50USD

Westinghouse 2 Built-In Timer .. half price.. 50%

Luv these heavy duty extension cords... 40ft length...

Heavy Duty 3 way plug..

LED SnowFlake.. color changing Batter Operated..

In the afternoon for Lunch we went to this Chinese takeout place called Ming's Restaurant 1888 State Street Schenectady, NY 12304-2128.. The cook is a HK cook.. and the dishes are real authentic Chinese taste. We really luv the dishes here.. On Friday nites , the wait can be up to an hour... so we normally call first to order then arrive later so the wait is shorter for us.

We checked out Target at Schenectady and bought some storage boxes at 4.50 each.. we bought 4 of them at 4,50 each.. a steal i would say.. the quality of the storage boxes here are so much higher and better compared to the cheap plastic ones i bought back home ..and also a 7,00USD wreath holder... for our giant Wreath..24" wreath... :)

you can spot the storage boxes and wreath holder in the trolley.

Tuesday Dec 27 , i am still on leave as its a company observed vacation day... lunch for today , we went to another place on our top 5 list...a place at Exit 5 called Ala Shanghai..(468 Troy Schenectady Road Latham, NY 12110)... this is a typical Shanghainess Restaurant.. which serves Shanghai TimSum... not my liking... i prefer HK style Dim Sum...but the Rice Noodle dish and the TongPo Pork dish is perfect... we luv these so much that this combination was our routine dishes when we are there.

Read the sad news on the web that Sears is going to close 100 over Sears/Kmart stores across US... i hope it does not affect the stores here....

We were in Kmart checking out the Post Xmas Clearance items... and we decided to get some wreath hangers to be used as clothes hangers over the door... these were 1,25 each .. cheaper option compared to the normal clothes hangars they sell in store..

Target delivered a big box to me... and guess what is inside this darn huge box... sometimes i am amazed at the way the shippers packed items... all that was inside this box was a 6 ft pole which extends to 11ft ...

thats all in this huge box... amazing... :) kids had a fun time "popping" the air bags...

Lego was being cleared in all stores from 50% upwards... so i grabbed a couple of items which i normally held back from buying...

FreecoSpeeder 8085 was 12,40

Extra set of Advent Calendar 19,90

Blacksmith Attack 6918 4,50 ..

all in all not too shabby prices.. and these prices are 70% off the prices in SGP if you were to buy the exact items back home....

xmas day...

2011-12-25T22:04:00.001-05:00

our internet has been down since Sat... heheh.. we have been sharing my neighbors network.. of course.. we asked him.. and he was ok with it.. he is a office mate ... so unfortunately he and a couple of friends went off on a road trip on Sat morning.. and every since.. we had no internet connection as the router needed to be reset.

boooooring... day.......

so we went to see the progress of our house..
gutters are up.. insulation internal is up...

Eve Xmas Dinner

2011-12-24T23:54:00.001-05:00

a colleague at work invited our family over for a dinner on the eve of Xmas.. we felt so honored and appreciated that they knew we were all alone here in NY.. and they wanting to share their food with us.. the kids were all excited as they also know their two kids..

Princess was dressed like Santa baby... :P..

The house they bought was huge... it had 5 rms on the second floor.. and this particular art room which was converted from a former family room. Princes fits in the swiss frock my mom bought from Switzerland 3 yrs ago..

The family made us felt so welcome.. the granny was busy serving the kids first.. to get them started on their meals...

The spread of food... yummy...normal dishes.. Honey Ham.. String beans.. sweet potato... Macaroni Cheese

2011-12-23T23:04:00.000-05:00

The kids at school... Rachel was featured on the school board for the Kindergarten grade...

Amazing the amt of stuffs kids leave behind...

I wish the snow would come soon... its on and off.. so bored...

Kids going to school.. i brought them to the bus pickup point...

best and nice ice cream... from the local convience store.. also priced at 3USD for 1.5Gal

Bought this HD Cam for placing in car to record drives..

Had dinner with the bunch of local Spore mates..

Some of the Lego thare was delivered to me...

10,14USD from Target.com..for this set..

these were 6,48 each

This race set was 7,48

Spongebob set $20..

Banana Game.. 4,68

The Big Ben Set.. was 29,99... was a steal..

My Digital Frames for the pics we have taken so far..might send one to my parents..

the 10" Gund Bear that came free with the Amazon order for the Christmas season

Friday on leave

2011-12-23T22:00:00.001-05:00

clearing my 2 floating holidays for the 2011 yr... these vacation days cant be carried forward to the next day...

Spent the day out at Wilton Area for dinner and some grocery shopping... Wilton mall was packed with ppl doing last min shopping... I am eyeing some of the seasonal lightnings to be cleared at Target or Kmart.. as these will be 50% off the normal price... decided to get some LED lightnings for the house exterior so that it can be used to brighten our backyard.

This has become my breakfast.. was suppose to be Princess meal.. but she got tired of it... so who will eat it... me...

Sunny Day....

2011-12-18T18:57:00.001-05:00

This is how cold the air is... its nearly -8C now... cold... but luckily its not windy.. else i dunno how to survive outside...

Snowless Winter seems to be a blessing... weather is cold.. but no snow.. no snow!!!.. and prediction for a white christmas seems to be very very slim... rolleyes....

Had lunch at our fav chinese place.. its a place call Fortune Cookie...about 10 mins drive from where we stay... maybe 5miles..

the ribs and wings are marinated till just nice... kids luv the wings especially..

Weather report shows its currently -6C outside.. freezing.. imagine.. i was cleaning my car and the water droplets on the car.. froze.. i had a hard time cleaning the frozen droplets.. and when i poured the water i had just wash the car with onto the ground.. it froze on contact...

2011-12-17T23:02:00.005-05:00

Was down at a local chinese Rest.. not too shabby.. we luv the taste of the food.. orderd a Wanton soup for the kids since they have missed having soup since coming here... also we tried the steamed pork.. of what you call it.. those you put with the buns... the layer of fats were just repelling... we removed all the fats from the meat.. and took only the lean meat..

The tree in the Restaurant's Entrance...

Afterthat we went about doing our grocery shopping for the week... typical places we will check out Target.. WalMart..BigLots...

"Our" Car... :)... lol.. how we wished.. a M seris Beemer.. seldom see a new M series beemer in this part of NY..

Again some shots with the Nikon L105... i luv the colors of the roses..Macro shot function of this cam is good... but the batteries run out fast.. i had only about close to 200 shots.. then i had to change the 4xAA batts in the Cam.. will monitor the batt comsumption of this camera...

Cold day today.. was -3C in the afternoon when we were walking out here.. chilling..

might need one of these if the snow gets very bad here.. but looks like chances of a white christmas based on the local weather forecast is 5%!!! .. darn it... but its also a blessing.. in this way.. the builders doing my house will not have to fight the weather elements while finishing my house..

Some ATV , All Terrain Vehicle.. many ppl own these here as the land they own are big.. and easier to get about on one of these...:)

Progress of the house has been going on schedule... internal insulation down.. outer walls siding material installed... mrs picked the colors on the exterior.. and even the maroon colored shutters on the left and right of the windows.. she commented that the color of the siding is too light... told her looks fine... if you look at the pic closely.. the pathway from the main day to the garage is also ready...

we decided that next christmas , we will also light up our house with the LED lights outside... and now we are waiting patiently for these items to be cleared from Target and Walmart.. i am eyeing the LEDs from Philips... these

Target are clearing the Legos at 50%... bought the hard to get Pizza truck from Toy Story 3..

And also these Castle series.. 50% off the normal price...

thursday .. a dinner with the company folks..

2011-12-16T06:41:00.001-05:00

not much pics... but was at a local family rest for the function.... nice atmosphere...

Sunday...

2011-12-12T21:13:00.007-05:00

did nothing much.. except to do some grocery shopping in the afternoon.. and lunch out at the local chinese place...

Now most of my pics are taken with the Nikon L105... i luv the pics from this camera now... its really clear.. and indoor shots are well lit up...

After lunch , we headed to the malls..

on the way home , the fire/police had blocked off a section of the road for a emergency helivac...

My laptop is nearly recovered from the virus infections... lol.. had to reinstall the whole OS...

I also bought these Lego Gift sets again.. topped up the min $5 per card.. so in fact the Lego set with it is free...

Weather...

2011-12-10T23:38:00.003-05:00

weather has been weird in upstate NY this winter, even the locals say its not normal... the problem is till now... no snow has accumulated on the grounds... it fell a day.. then in 2 days time .. all snow has melted. And again this week's weather forecast.. no snow.. just a slight chance of rain on Thursday... weird weird.

Mrs and son was down with stomach flu on Friday night... and Sat was a whole day of stay in while they recover. Luckily me and princess were still all ok. Spent the whole morning washing the cars. The salt that is used here just sticks to the car.. i need to bring them into a manual spray bay to jet off the salt, Especially the SUV.

Marcus and Rachel finished their Teacher Parent sessions at the school. One comment about Marcus was , the teacher was surprised at his voice. His teacher saide the kids all had to go thru a session with a mic in front of the whole class and tell about the story they wrote about the thanksgiving turkey they had made. The teacher at first tot that Marcus would back away/shy away from the mic and speaking in front of the class. Not only was the teacher surprised he spoke with the mic, he was further surprised with his voice, he commented he has a nice voice. hmmmm.. maybe we should really consider sending Marcus to join the school choir or let him take up singing here as a ECA.

Rachel on the other hand , the teacher commented that she could easily push her up to Grade 1 now with the progress she has made. We told the teacher , let her adjust.. and follow her classmates.. now that she has made friends among the kids here.. they will all be in the same class all the way thru to Grade5. Looks like Rachel and Marcus is accomodating well.. We still have to bring up the level of understanding of English for Marcus, we noticed that certain sentences he has a difficulty understanding the meaning.. so now what we did was, he has to read a book daily. He has enjoyed it so far so we will continue in this direction.

Snow was here briefly on Wed.. but cleared up quickly the next day...

thursday..dinner

2011-12-08T21:12:00.001-05:00

Thursday.. had a dinner with a bunch of guys in the same work area... had a nice chinese dinner... food was great.. and we liked it so much...

Sat... House update..weekupdate

2011-12-03T23:03:00.007-05:00

This week we sent in our SUV for its 5K miles maintenance. Surprised that we hit 5K miles in 3months.. but its typical.. considering the distances between places. I wanted the dealer to check the rear wheel alignment of the car as the tire place we had out winter tires fitted on said the rear alignment was out. I am always skeptical about shops telling me that we need to do this and that to the car. And also the tire guy also recommended me to leave the winter tires on the rear.. i was WTF.. and told him my car is FWD.. and i tot having the winters in the front isnt the right way?? He said no.. ok i did not want to argue with him too much as he was a expert and he does it in and out.. So I left it fitted on the rear. The dealer we sent our car for servicing called me to tell me my rear alignment were all ok.. nothing to be done.. but he said that he noticed we had only 1 pair of winters .. and its on the rear.. he recommended and said it should be fitted on the front as my car was a FWD and it makes more sense having the snow tires in the front pulling and steering the car in snow...WTF.. who is right.. bu i believe this guy.. as it makes sense...scammers all about in the US.. so you need to be aware..thats tat. and we got our car back on Friday night...

This is the difference between a non winter...

and this.. Winter tires.. the threads are thicker and deeper.. and tire compound is basically softer

Our Princess was recognised at school this week.. for being the "Character Kid of the Month" we were happy that she archived something on her own in the school here. Glad that she did it all on her own...she came home telling us she was presented this cert that day.. and a picture was taken of her receiving it in school

On Friday when we check the mailbox , we found a letter addressed to her...

Opening up the letter.. another congratulatory note .. we laminated it up so that it can be kept as a remembrance.

Over the past couple of wks, Rachel has accumlated quite a number of boots.. but sadly the boots i bought for her when i was in taiwan was peeling... cheap product... so we bought her another pair from here..

Preparing to go out to view our house .. as its been a while since we last visited it 2 weeks back.. i also did the electrical walk with the builders last week.. so i wanted to see the progress of it..

Arrived at our housing site and we were able to make our way up to the second floor as they have fitted the stairs and also poured the concrete into the basement and garage.

I luv the size of the basement and the number of pillars we had.. just one.. perfect to finish up the basement later... also the sump pump was at the fall end there.. where you see a white pipe thing sticking out from the floor.

Princess Lee

Shots from the Nikon L105

2011-12-02T22:43:00.001-05:00

99USD.. and i am happy with the shots from this camera... no complaints...its all taken using the Auto Setting... not the Easy Auto Mode.. the Easy Auto Mode is horrid.. and color scene, i used vivid color settings...

I am sold on this camera... :)

luv the blueness of the sky...

Some Macro shots in the local super market

I luv this shot....

This shot was taken at the parking lot and handheld.... cool i am impressed

Nikon CoolPix L105

2011-11-28T21:21:00.004-05:00

Received this cam today.. the Nikon CoolPix L105.. part of the BF items target had on offer... simple looking cam with very basic specs...

The Box the camera came with

Some of the specs...it use 4xAA batts.. good thing if you run out of power.. pop into the local stores to get batts...

as expected.. no SD card given.. and no Camera case too..

Surprising thing was .. the camera was not made in China.. but made in Vietnam...

What 99USD bought me... Camera.. 4xAA batt, a USB cable , a Camera Strap.. and a Lens cover plus the software that came with the camera..

The cool looking camera...

I luv the huge 3 inch display...

Verdict.. pics came out smooth and precise.. but sometimes holding by hand just could not compare than on a tripod. I have a feeling that this camera will perform perfect in the normal lightning condition in the day.. outdoors...

What i did not like was the function of the cam.. i could not adjust the self timer... the other functions were basic... ISO adjustment can be done.. various mode for taking pics...

BF Weekend

2011-11-27T21:45:00.007-05:00

BF weekend.. strange thing.. this year all BF deals seems to be avaliable online and beats having to be waiting at the store front at 4am waiting for the stores to throw open the doors... thats great....

I spent the time in the afternoon on sat cleaning the little toaster we have...
Used the Oven cleaner from Germany... and the next moment .. the toaster was a lot cleaner...

Had to let the foam soak in and work on the oil stains...

a 16GB SD card which cost me 15USD .. bought this as i had bought a 12MP Nikon camera.. and i suspect for the cheap price i paid USD99 .. it would not have a SD card at all..

The Neighbour opposite us.. placed his blow up figurines.. for the coming christmas season... i think our new place, we would get 2 or 3 of these once the stores clears it on the 26 Dec.. :)

We found the kids dolls in this position .. in the room.. heard the boy mentioning to the girl.. "they kissing"... i was like WTF..

Girl has taken to having her hair plaited or tied up daily.. and mrs is the one she wants to do it..

and then came Santa...

was out for dinner.. and on the way back..

some of the cars Marcus spotted outside while we were out.. this was a Dodge Magnum.. i like the slick shape of this car.. and look at the 22inches!!!

we snapped pics outside his home...

Sunday morning i damage one of the pots which we had for a while.. i turn on the wrong stove.. heating up the pot inturn.. and did not realising it till i smelled something funny... too late.. damaged done..

ThanksGiving..

2011-11-26T21:25:00.002-05:00

I like the way things are taught at the schools here in the US, the schools explain the meaning of what Thanksgiving was to the kids.. do you know what ThanksGiving is about and how it came about?...me too.. i had no clue.. when the girl came back with a Pilgrim cape.. i was like hmmm.. i better start reading up.. off to Wiki.. and found out more about it...Whats a Pilgrim cape you ask... lol...go check wiki...

Thats the diff here.. the teachers here teach... i think the schools back home has sort of lost touch with the basics... frankly.. till now i do not have a clue of what the various festival back home was about.. except for the traditional Chinese New Year and National Day... here in the US.. i learn also more from the kids... Columbus day.. etc...

I bought a pair of rings for us... i like this pair...

Snow was here on Wed... but it all melted thereafter....the next couple of days...

the kids were excited to see the snow.. and they have been waiting for a while...now...i read up on the news that even Scandinavia was short of snow.. weather change.. and imagine it was also reported some rose gardens in Stockholm were blooming a second time... abnormal..even the next couple of days here were forcasted to be sunny.. and temp tonight will hit 13C... hot..!!!

I had 2 days off work.. Thursday and a Friday...Friday was more like looking for the best deal.. i bought some stuffs... good price.. and i was happy...I hope i do not blow my budget..

We had Turkey too... heee.. turkey Patties...lol

Thursday was Thanksgiving Diner for the Americans.. and families were travelling back home to have a good gathering and meal with their families.. us.. what did we do?... we had dinner outside.. at our local Chinese Restaurant...

After Dinner we headed home and i started camping out on the laptop searching for deals... got some of the stuffs we needed at a cheap price...bought only essentials..

On Friday Morning the morning of Black Friday.. Walmart had good deals on the DVDs and Blurays... Dvd were at USD$2... and BluRays started from USD$5

these PS3 games were priced out of the world.. so i bought those i liked..

Weekend before BF

2011-11-20T19:45:00.002-05:00

BF.. what is BF?... Black Friday!!!.. the craziest weekend is next week.. lots of crazy priced items ...for me , some of the places carrying the house appliances we wanted were already available online.. in the end , we bought a set of Washer/Dryer (1,500) and a fridge (1000) .. and on top of it , i had a 10% extra off.. if not for black Friday sales.. these would have cost me easily 3.5K ... but all were paid for by company... now i have to get a LCD or LED panel... whats the diff.. basically from what i read.. LCD and LED .. is just the backlight is either a CFL light or LED... unless you are getting a OLED panel.. which is so much more higher in price...

The Kindergarten classes where Rachel is in .. had the kids make a art work of themselves and had their faces pinned up on the wall..Rachel was the only Black haired person in class.... but seems some kids had their hair colored black ..:)

The school has a book sales and Rachel wanted to get some books.. so mrs was down at the school to assist her with the purchase. She was hapyy with her purchase, and we have read to her all the books she bought that day

Sat.. we went down to the garage to have our car fitted with Winter/Snow Tires.. snow is forecasted next week.. so better start doing it... :). Read online and from advise from the locals here its better to get SNOW tires compared to using just ALL SEASONs.

Every shopping area here in the US.. in the gardening section will have all the outdoor Christmas deco... it was a first time for us to see that the Caucasians are so into deco for the lawn area of their homes.. they did the same thing during the Halloween season too. So i am hoping that on 26 Dec.. all these items are on clearance price... might get 2 or 3 pcs to "lighten" up the house when the snow is here... also could be used as a additional set of light to light up the external area.

Sunday .. today we went to our house again to check on progress.. they have started work on the interior.. shower units are in... water piping have been laid.. hot air ductings are fitted in.

Also at least the exterior of the house roof has been completed.. i want them to finish up the siding.. so that we will be in time before the first snow comes..

Christmas deco galore... everywhere are the decos...

another Weekend

2011-11-13T23:33:00.003-05:00

Marcus had a project to beautify the turket.. it was due to the upcoming thanksgiving holiday which falls on the 4th Thursday of the month. Used a couple of materials we could find around the house, halloween wrappers, magazine shavings. It was interesting for the 2 kids as we did it together.

We went out in the afternoon and Rachel feel asleep after lunch...

Marcus came across a lifted F150 truck.. he luvs these.

hehehe.. we did some shopping at VS.. need to spice our life a bit...

but sorry no pics of what we bought.. :P

The local Target here had these gift cards.. we topped up the min req of $5 and bought a number of the sets.. In the end the Lego set makes a good Christmas gift.

These were also avaliable... strange.. but oh well .. i just bought a pack each... waiting for them to clear after christmas... the big clearance..

I dun use these.. but the price i paid was only for shipping and joining the launch of their new webpage.. the usual price of this cream was 30USD.. but i paid only 8USD for shipping.

Bought these lashes for 30 cents each.. Halloween clearance.. yes i use these.. :)

Sunday, we went down to exit 2 and had our weekend lunch at our fav restaurant...

did not realise my radio could play mp3 via the USB.. nice option to have...

After lunch , we went back to exit 9 and did our weekend shopping and also for me to get the TV set i was hopping they carried.. and yes they did... its a 32" 1080p LED TV from Phillips.. oh well for the price of 288... i could not turn it down..

Used the gift cards to pay for the TV set.. and i ended up with so many sets.. :)

House..

2011-11-06T23:29:00.001-05:00

Winter is coming soon... so i have most of the winter gear for the car ready....Shovel.. brush.. i still need a flashlight for the car..

We dropped by the building site again.. and managed to get in...

The internal of the house was a eyeopener for the kids and us adults too.. the house looked some simply built... looks easy...

Was at Marshalls and found this book.. $7 was a steal to me..

Halloween is over

2011-11-05T18:53:00.002-04:00

The Halloween season is over and the kids were happy with their collection of treats..

Progress of the house is good... speed is there.. should be all framed up and ready for them to start inside

I luv the autumn colors.. the reds of the trees are so bright!!

but Winter is approaching soon... air is starting to be cold..

Not sure what Rachel was doing.. but it seems she has enough of the pics.

Bought a pair of these shoes for her.. nice GUESS kids boots..she luv it alot

Some of the lego sets over the past weeks...
the New City Advent Calender set..

Pink Belville Minifigure Clock.. i ♥♥♥♥

POC ships... got these at a steal of 85 each... these will be collectors.. i just bought the ships in the POC collection .. thats all..

The rest of the loose items i bought... the mini packs were 99 cents.. amazing.. but some reported some Targets had these for 39 cents... well.. i am fine.. not going to drive about looking for 40cents lego...

Picked these up from Target at $2 each..

Curtin Class Pic...

2011-11-02T11:16:00.001-04:00

a picture of my class of 97 in Curtin University... such a long time ... found this pic when i was searching for documents for my Green Card Application

Freak Snow in Oct...

2011-10-31T23:00:00.001-04:00

was a shock to the residents even here in NY.. that a snow cloud is here so early..

came on Thursday.. and covered the car in snow... luckily i had my snow stuff prepared.. most essential.. snow brush and scrapper...also my handy sunshade.

snow melted the next day on Friday... but the air was cold.. real cold .. mrs was complaining about it

Red trees...

Was down by our place on Sat.. and again weather forcasted snow in the afternoon and thru the night... Progress on the house again.. roof all up and some windows have been installed.

we had dinner at our fav chinese restaurant.. and it snowed at 6pm... by the time we left , its was snowing heavily.. and we drove back 15 miles in the snow.. the snow plows were out too that night..
The snow covered surroundings outside..made the whole scene so white...

Kids had their Halloween pararde at school on Monday the actual day.. and we changed them into their suits.. to have a few pics taken... Rachel especially luv her suit.. as we had also ordered matching tights for her...as she said Strawberry has white green stripped tights.

She was all set for school the next day..

the higher grade classes grade 1 - 5 had their yearly parade.. and Marcus enjoyed it.. seems to be a very big occasion here...

House Progress..

2011-10-22T23:00:00.001-04:00

work have been hectic at the office.. things are moving and many many meetings now i have to be attending or i am driving.. oh well part of work.. and thats what i am paid to do... enough of work... now back to me and family.

Update on our new home progress.. things are moving as we speak... at least the 1st story is up.. still have the second story to go..

this view is the view of the back of our house and backyard.. i like the fact that the house is placed/seated about 30 ft from the road.. and my backyard should have about 15 to 20 ft of space left for me to clear later.

Autumn colors are nice... reds..yellows..

Lunch we went to our fav place .. a Chinese Restaurant place at Exit 2 about 10 miles away..the only place where the chinese food tastes like chinese food.

After lumch , we went to walmart to do our weekly grocery. .. and there were Halloween stuff all around...

Kids Class Photo

2011-10-15T23:00:00.003-04:00

This week basically the kids had a class photo taking day. Its a norm for the schools here in the US. Happened the same as in Dresden when Marcus was in the International School there. Mrs was stress out over what the kids should wear.. and in the end.. they wore these to school for the day... Rachel's teacher commented she looked lovely...

Got home during the week and when i was opening the fridge... i saw this on the day...

They do not want to admit who did it..

Sunday... we were at Exit 9 and came across this field selling pumpkins...the most pumpkins we and the kids had ever seen.. guess its common.. since Halloween is round the corner.

thereafter we drove to town.. and saw a couple of nice cars which Marcus commentted.. "look cars!!".. when we parked our vehicle , Marcus always like to see how dirty the underneath of the car is..

Legos are cheap here if you get these clearance sets..paid 20USD each for this... usual was 39.90

Bought these sets of rims to our SUV to have summer tires on it.. these were 18" rims bigger than the rims i have currently on my SUV.. the current rims and tires , i intend to switch them to winter tires..These rims were Suzuki RIMS that came off a Suzuki Grand Vitara.

Sunday... Columbus day tomorrow..

2011-10-09T18:30:00.005-04:00

What is Columbus Day?? Day which ppl remembers Christopher Columbus' arrival to the Americas on October 12, 1492.

Pooh is with us... :)... change some of the bedsheets...

Kids having a moment to themselves....tomorrow is a school holiday for them... we try to keep the kids busy with activities and homework.. lol.. as the TV set is not out.. so the kids can get pretty bored at home.

had a nasty scratch... but not too serious...

Spent some time clearing out the garage.. so that one of our cars can be in there .. to avoid the harsh coming winter.. Winter is here for 4-5 months..

My current basement is nearly filled up with my stuffs from Singapore. Stuff from Germany is within the apartment itself... i am wondering how i am going to move all these stuff to my new place... ???

New temp place...

2011-10-08T23:01:00.003-04:00

we have officially moved from corp housing to our own paid housing.. temp place for 6 months while our new house are being built...

Place is pretty cramp.. but we arranged it such that we could fit our items...

I have to clear out the Garage of the empty boxes this weekend to make space for one of the cars to be parked in there.

Target clearance .. i just luv buying the clearance red ticket items...
massive savings...

evening we met up with a neighbour who will be staying in the new place we are building... nice daughters.. and Rachel luvs playing and talking to them. The hubby is in the same company as me and we have gotten to know them pretty well. At least spouse has a friend here in NY now.

Afternoon weather was supber... was out the whole day.... cool.... sunny and clear skies.. went to Clifton park first.. thereafter , we proceeded to Crossgates for the kids to have a haircut.. :)

kids had a good time with the fire engines on display at KMart.. there was a fire campaign ongoing and the local fire dept had their fire trucks on display.

Marcus having his haircut at CrossGate Mall

we moved.. to a 6 month temp place

2011-10-03T15:03:00.003-04:00

tired weekend... last week had my Dresden shipment delivered to our temp rental place till our new house is ready.. and we were busy unpacking 2 weekends back.. now this week, our SGP container was delivered to the rental place. Luckily, we did not sign a lease for a self storage place. The basement of the current unit could fit our stuffs. Spent Sat and Sunday unpacking and repacking many of the SGP boxes, we cleared a lot of items also from the SGP shipment which were a lot of useless stuff packed in the last few hours of the move.

Mainly the storeroom stuffs were packed quickly during the last hours of our move and that did not give us ample time to clear a lot of unnecessary stuffs away. Over the week , i ordered a LG vacuum cleaner which uses the latest "Kompressor" Technology.. sounds so German.. but its a LG...KOMPRESSOR® PetCare Plus Canister Vacuum Cleaner .. nice name.. item was delivered on Sat and was just in time for me to use it in the rental apt till we move to a new place.

The Persian Rug which my mom gave me when i made the move to Dresden , the movers had unpacked it.. when i specifically told them not to unpack any of my rugs as the house here were carpeted... Luckily it was just this rug which was unpacked. Well so we used the new vac on this rug. This rug was the one used in the living room in Dresden and we had it vacuumed every other day as the kids were always playing on it... and imagine the shock of discovering how much dust there was even tot we had it vacuumed every other day in Dresden. I was sold on this Vac..glad i bought it.

We dropped by our new home site... progress again...

I bought 2 power transformers.. stepup units from a person on craiglist 2 weeks back(many ppl say not to buy from craiglist... well .. Caveat emptor .. these things weighted a ton.. cause of them being heavy duty transformers ... when my electric stuffs were unpacked and i plug in the TIGER brand toaster which we have been using it in Dresden, it did not work.. i was like WTF.. i bought dud units?? i was cheated??.. paid 175USD for the 2 units ( 3000W and 2000W units). I was depressed and actually just this evening , we were at walmart and bought a new 110V toaster to get by temporary for next week. I still could not believe it... so i called the TollFree Support line and haha... 1 was the silly one.. i had not selected correctly the input voltage selector at the rear of the unit.. some Engineer i am ... gosh.. selected 110V.. and yess.. my TIGER toaster came alive...tested my laminator from back home and it worked too... whew... so told mrs to return the newly bought toaster from WALMART... the perks of shopping here.. we could do returns if we were not satisfied.

I have started to enjoy shopping online here.. the discount for shopping online are so much higher...

these crates were $1 each... we bought 10... lol

Selection Done for Carpetting

2011-09-25T13:53:00.003-04:00

was done at the carpetting place to do selection for the carpets.. conmpleted another step of the house..

Weather in the mornings have been foggy and started getting wet... accidents on the route i normally take to work is common.

Weekends

2011-09-18T11:29:00.003-04:00

A classic Ford we spotted on the roads here.. could see many unique old cars here..in the US

Been a while since i updated the blog .. and i just updated the last couple of weeks happenings in our life here... i am busy with work.. mrs is now busy with shuttling the kids to and fro schools... a normal routine for her now...

The mornings now are getting colder and longer... and evenings are started to turn chilly earlier.. these couple of days the temp was like 4C in the morning.. like this monring... i wanted to wash the car.. and it was all misty and foggy outside..

Fall has arrived...

Kids all summer clearance on clothes.. cost like 1.67 per pc... gosh...and we saved 148USD.. lol...i would not buy clothes at the normal priced tagged

Progress of House

2011-09-17T23:30:00.003-04:00

met up with a friend who was coming from home. Relocating to the US too. He was here on a house hunting trip to find a place for him and his partner to stay... Really appreciated the help he took to bring me items.. :) thanks..

There was a BMW Isetta.. with compliments of Saratoga Automobile..

had lunch with him and shop abit. He had a shopping list.. lol.
Thereafter he was dead tired still as he had not gotten over the jetlag of the flight. Dropped him off at the Hotel and proceeded to view the progress of our house.

Basement digging has completed and soon concrete will be poured in to form up the basement. Bumped into our neighbours who's husband is working in the same company as me. Nice family. Has 2 daughters. His wife and mrs gets along fine.

Sunsetting is beautiful in the beginning of Fall

Its getting Cold...

2011-09-16T23:27:00.003-04:00

getting cold now.... look at the temp.... 42F in the morning on the way to work. 4C equivalent.

The Digger is at our spot... starting the first dig... yeah!!

drove about taking pics of the various other houses in our estate...

Landplot of a colleague of mine.. we will be neighbours.. we were also staying in the same building in Dresden.

Ordered these screen protectors just arrived today... nice.. to fit on the Touchpad... 7USD each...discounted.. normal was 20USD..

NY Learner

2011-09-11T23:33:00.003-04:00

Mrs recevied her Learners permit 3 wks back.... just received mine today....hehehe

Princess has gotten used to having long car rides.. till she will fall asleep even for a short 20min drive... gosh...

Found the Xwing in TRU here... this cost like 55USD after the discount for the weekend.

Found the Toy Story 3 Alien ship for 19USD on clearance at Walmart shelves... ToyStory3 sets are getting tougher to find on the shelves here...

This came free with any purchase of StarWars related Merchandise..a 2GB thumbdrive

House Selections

2011-09-10T23:41:00.002-04:00

Went to the lighting place to do our light selection.. kept to the budget that was given to our house... done all lightings in a hour...

Then we headed to the Kitchen place to show mrs what i picked for the cabinets.. as the guy was not free to do us on a weekend.

This will be the color of the Toilet tops in all bathroom on my house...

Went to the Lego section whenever i am at Walmart and also the Clearance shelves... managed to spot .. and bought these..

These were 2.50 a box..

Scored the Train set at 40..

Horse at 5

BiPlane at 15

School for the kids..

2011-09-07T23:23:00.003-04:00

School Started on Sept 7... kids first day

Reward Points

2011-09-05T23:34:00.004-04:00

The various Key rewards tab i have.

My Touchpad zipper case... i luv the price and design.. 10USD.

HP Lego..

A accident on the way home...

Sea Gulls hanging out at a parking spot.. strange to see so many of them

Mrs is good

2011-09-04T22:30:00.001-04:00

Mrs getting comforable with the car.. heavy rain is not a issue to her now...

Lake George OUtlets..

2011-09-03T23:32:00.004-04:00

Decided to drop by Lake George Outlets.. about 30miles from where i am..
Let Mrs take over the wheels to get her familiar with the SUV...

Princess was at the back playing with the touchpad.

Luch at a local dinner serving Fish and Chips..

Halloween is round the corner.. and all shops are selling these items for the occasion.

These bears were produced using a saw..the motorised ones.. i cant remember what its called... brain freeze

Cool looking X6 cross...

Lake George in the background..

Bought this Nook for someone.. he wanted it for his daughter's birthday

We had a good day shopping there...I luv the color of the red checked flats and told mrs she should get it.. 15USD..

Kids clothes.. these cost less than 10USD.. lol.. the slippers were 2USD each..

The cooler we bought 10USD... lol..dunno why i bought this.. but it would be good to store cold drinks

Surrounds..

2011-09-03T23:23:00.001-04:00

New York Driving.. trying to get Mrs to drive more.. so weekends.. she is the driver.. not me

All My touchpads arrived... now i have to get cases and screen protectors for them

Lego from Borders... 15

School walkaround...

2011-09-01T23:23:00.003-04:00

Kid's school had a open day.. and told mrs i will not be going along.. too much work piling up .. she went with the kids with her driving to school... hehehe...

Looks like kids luv the environment.... its was

Morning....

2011-08-28T12:16:00.003-04:00

saw the news the Hurricane has weakened.. and its been downgraded now... goodness...whew

rain is pouring as we speak..

Weekend.. and before Hurricane hits here..

2011-08-27T23:56:00.002-04:00

even tot we are 180miles from NYC... we will still get the stong winds and rains which are on the outer rim of the Hurrican system.

We decided to check out CrossGate Mall

spent the whole afternoon there shopping and exploring the shops there.. did not buy much.. just essentials...

we were all prepared to ride out the Tropical Storm due to the Hurricane...kids were busy with Touchpad Apps i have installed...Angry Birds

I received my 3rd SSC.. i hope this is the last.. and i can finally go do my Learner's Permit..!!!

Legos.. picked up a couple from Borders again... :)

Also decided to get this set which was clearing at Target: Prince of Persia Set..

Also i received my Keyboard Protector Sleeve for my Sony Laptop.. its Purple in color... lol.. bought the bright colors...

Hurricane Irene heading for NY State

2011-08-26T23:52:00.001-04:00

first time being caught up in extreme climate conditions.. its going to hit landfall at VA this evening and make its way up to NewEngland or Boston .. and we decided to stock up on food and water... went to the local supermkt and stocked up on essentials..

saw there were apple and cherry trees at the parking lots at Walmart at my area...first time for us seeing a apple tree.

started on EC stack too.. :) something which i did awhile back

1st of my Touchpad arrived

2011-08-25T23:49:00.002-04:00

the 32GB model was first to reach me... started unpacking it .. and testing it... pretty happy with the web browsing and skype capability.. i need some time to explore the other free apps which are downloadable via HPApps store..

had another ride ready in the evening..and took it home :)

Virginia had a earthquake!!

2011-08-24T23:44:00.001-04:00

a Earthquake happened in Virginia on Aug 23rd at 1:58pm.. and we could feel it here in Upstate NY ..it was shaking the office building i was in.. and i felt giddy for a moment.. quickly asked all to evacuate the buildings...glad no damage ot injuries occured...family was all safe too.. mrs commented she felt nothing at home , kids were busy eating icecream at that moment..

Earthquakes happen far less frequently on the East Coast than they do in seismically tumultuous places such as California or Japan.

Evening we went out for dinner... as mrs say the kids wanted to eat out...

Touchpad

2011-08-23T11:39:00.001-04:00

Middle of the week while at work.. did a inventory check on BestBuy stores.. and found out that the store 6 miles from work was carrying it.. it seems they recevied stock the last evening... so off i went to get it and i was a happy owner of a 32 GB Touchpad.. at the same time.. i received a email stating my earlier online orders with BestBuy has shipped.. yippeee...

Princess BD... she is 5

2011-08-22T23:35:00.002-04:00

Princess BD was on Monday .. and she is 5 now.. big girl.. and she has grown fast...

We bought a cake for her from the supermkt last evening and she was all dolled up when i returned after work for a pic... she was excited.. i think next round their BD , we will do it with their friends..

This round we did it simple as the place we were in was temp living only... next yr we will be in our permanent place

HP touchpad firesale..

2011-08-21T23:30:00.002-04:00

did not realise this sale on HP Touchpad.. usual were going for $399(16GB) and $499(32GB).. and they cut the price down to $99 and $149...this sale.. caused me to be online for nearly 2 days.. and at least i managed to put in a order for 2 sets via BestBuy Website on Sunday morning.. i was a happy man...

All the hype was due to this news

HP Says 'So Long' to WebOS Devices
Hewlett-Packard shocked the mobile world announcing Thursday it would discontinue support for its WebOS mobile operating system used in smartphones and tablets.

also another shocking news in the same day

The company also confirmed a rumor that it will spin off all or part of its personal computer business and purchase U.K.-based software company Autonomy Corp. That, in itself, is a huge shift for HP, whose CEO Leo Apotheker said in January that he wanted the company to eventually become "cool" like Apple.

Pinic Day

2011-08-20T23:26:00.003-04:00

Had a office Dept Pinic where coworkers and family had a get together to know each other...day was sunny.. and weather was just perfect for a day out... it was held at the State Park and we had a pavilion to ourselves..kids enjoyed themselves tot it was sunny...

Game of volleyball.. i did not join him as i hated the sun!!!

kids had their own play area... playing with the bean bags..and ball

House ...

2011-08-14T08:40:00.011-04:00

great week.. and many progress done...personel portion and work portion...

- Home. My Home mortgage application was approved with the banks here,so that enabled us to put the 10% downpayment for the builders to start the process of the construction of our new place... must thank my mom for the help :P

- NY State License. Mrs received her NY Learner's Permit and has booked a test date for Sept 12 for a NY State Driving License.. i have to do it this coming Monday.. You guys must be wondering.. how about mine Learner's permit...why am i slower than my wife.. lol .. I was screwed by the Social Security office here.. my Social Security Card initially had only my Dialect name without my christian name.. but who knows when i went to do the Learner's Permit at the local DMV.. they checked all my documents.. and say my Social Security Card has to have the same names as my passport. Dam... so off i went to Social Security office again and resubmitted a application to have my name amended.. another week of waiting.. thats why my wife did hers first and received her Learner's Permit quicker than me

- Personel Transport. Bought a used car so that once my company rental ends.. we have our own personel car. Its a 2011 KIA Sportage... had only 13K miles on it and we paid 18.5K USD for it, am taking bread for the next 5 months.. lol... Not to shabby for a 2011 , 10 month old car. The warranty on the Koreans car here in the US is amazing.. its has 10 yrs warranty... tot i am not a Korean car lover.. but for a 2011 car at this price.. is just too good to pass. I did a carfax history of the car before buying it .. no accidents or major issues with it.. so the car was all clean in the Title. Took the car in the afternoon yesterday. and spent some time cleaning it out in the evening.. gave the car a good wash.. internally and externally. Now we have to register the car, do a title change and we are good to drive it. Buying a car here in the US is not easy .. especially with a used car.. i was worried that i would get a problematic car given the amt of complaints i have researched on the web for the various brands and models i was looking at. In the end this deal came up and i decided to latch on it. I even had to leave office early on Friday to view the car with mrs and decide.

Car only had 13000 miles on it..

Has all the toys in it
Nav/Stat radio/Bluetooth wireless

Backup Camera.. which is important with such a high car.

Kids in the spare room in our unit.. playing..

Rachel has gotten so use and falling asleep in the car whenever we are driving to any place..

Its a great saving..

a used Bettle for 10K.. 46Kmiles at the VW dealership.

More Legos..

2011-08-10T09:27:00.002-04:00

from the Local Goodwil store.. a charity stores where big organizations give stuff to them to sell for the homeless or needy ppl here in the US.. and i found on online that Legos which Target stores cant sell off.. they will give it to Goodwill to sell.

these 2 packs were off 50% usual price at the stores..

And this castle set was clearing at Walmart for 7USD each

Marcus Birthday..

2011-08-06T09:21:00.004-04:00

The boy's birthday was yesterday... and he reminded me and mrs the whole week about what cake we buying etc.. in the end.. we decided to do a cupcake BD cake.. hehe.

Unique and it was a first time for him celebrating his BD in the US. The cupcakes were simple off the shelf items.. which was sold at the bakery section in Walmart... and priced at 3USD for 8 cupcakes..

One thing that surprised me was Marcus said to us.. Ah Ma's red packet have we kept it.. we were surprised he brought that up .. as my parents gave it to us just before we left for the US.

HAPPY BD Marcus... :)

Target Clearance....

2011-08-02T14:50:00.002-04:00

lock to keep the housekey in.. so that if need to can open this lock and retrieve the key...

Bought this B&D toolset... pretty cheap for this price..18V drill , Circular Saw and a stud finder... the 18V drill and Stud finder as a kit is already 59.95... so for a price of 39.95 .. it was a steal

we love this so much... need more supplies from Home.!!!

More Lego clearance at the nearby Target at my home... these were shocking prices.... i luv here so much now

Another week

2011-07-31T23:27:00.003-04:00

was very surprise at the Lego offers they have here... seriously.. the discounted price are crazy too.. like for these Storm Tropper sets... in the end after the additional 50% off the Clearance price of 9USD.. it was 4.50USD per box... i bought 4 boxes...

The Corp apartment which the company has put us in... slowly settled in now.. its beedn a week since we moved in.. after fighting off the summer bugs etc...bought a bug spray on recommendation by a co-worker in office... it work pretty well and kept the bugs out of the house.

Weather this week was perfect..sunny but not too hot.. temp was in the mids 75F...

Poor Princess she suffered a rug burn.. she fell and she rubbed her face on the rug in the process.. thus causing this burn

Was at this Chinese Restaurant down by Exit 2.. and the food was authentic chinese... nice...

again another fortune cookie telling our fortune...

Went to Lowes to try to look for a Daylight White Bulb.. but surprise that the highest wattage avaliable was only 23W... so miserable.. and i checked with a staff and said.. yep that is the brightest they have for CFL... gosh...
I will need to approach my Taiwan friends to help me get the 65W CFL bright Spiral ones... has to be Daylight white... :)

Safes...

Selections

2011-07-23T23:14:00.009-04:00

we had a appointment today with the builders to select the colors and trimmings in the house. The house is going to be built by a company called Traditional Builders.

Appointment was 1pm.. so we went out earlier and had lunch at China Wang a local restaurant at Exit 12..Marcus appetite has grown. We ordered 2 dishes, Seasame Chicken and Roast Pork Mee Fun.. guess what.. he finished the whole place of the Mee Fun.. cause the cooking style was very typical of what we have back home.

Proceeded to the Home site to view the design we wante. There was alreay a family who has already been living there. And Interestingly , the whole site only had one house which was having that design.. and guess we will be the second home to have that design. Saw the house and we were happy with the size of the rooms on the second floor. The Masterroom was huge.. bigger than the one we had in Germant when we were there.

Thereafter we returned back to the sales office to start deciding on options and add ons.

We opted for minimal options as we did not really wanted to add a whole load of items
- 220V Outlet in Family room - $150
- 220V outlet in Basement - $150
- 8 x outlet in Basement - $420
- fan box for family room so that we can install a fan/light combo in the family room if we decide to - $100
- ceiling light box for living room.
- Switch for future garbage disposal - $100
- Upgrade tub/shower to 5' Shower - $350
- Upgrade Insulation Vapor Barrier on 1st and 2nd floor to 6mils thickness from 4mils - pending pricing feedback.

My Agent told me that we were the last family for this development to be eligible for the 16K USD credit. After us, whoever decides will not get that 16K discount.. we were delighted.

After finalizing the details of the house , we headed to get stationary for the kids school semester in Sept.

Walmart Sanyo 55" LCD.. 848+8%... so its cheap for a good size LCD.

was surprised to find BB guns selling in Walmart itself... lol...

Weekend

2011-07-22T23:54:00.001-04:00

its been 2 weeks since we have been in the US.. time flies.. things that we have done this far..

- decided on a place with parents assisting us on the purchase.
- Opened another US bank account... we decided to close the HSBC bank account as it wasnt what we really wanted and furthermore there were no employee perks.

Things that we still need to do and followup
- apply a Social Security Number
- register the kids in the Shen School District
- convert our driving license
- await our shipment of goods from Germany/Singapore, most probably we will put into the storage the items from Singapore
- decide on a storage place
- decide on a temp accomodation for 6 months from Oct onwards while house is being built.

The weather this week was humid like SGP.. wed and thursday this week were the worst.
Same humidity as HK.. and Rachel was refusing to step out from the car.

dunno what this place was.. there was a cool WWII tank there...

Checked out TRU on Thursday evening...we have signed up for the local TRU rewards cards.. seems in US , these reward cards are so in.. so far i have the Kmart and TRU reward cards

Had a appointment with the site supervisor of the place where our house was going to be at..he went thru exactly where our house will sit .. and how much grading he needs to level the land to have the house sitting on it..

Kids hid in the car with mrs..it was just me out there in the hot sun...

After it we went by Colonie Center again to get Princess her Necklace set which she lost a earing... well it was cheap.. 2USD so bought it for her.. my mum will be grumbling when she sses this post and says .. again buy toys...

Was at Macy's .. the reward card is recommended to get it... but sadly i have not received my SSN yet.. so i cant really apply for the card

If i had done it.. this purse from COACH would have cost just 30USD.. cause on top of the 25% there was a 20% and additional 15%... lol... no wonder COACH is so cheap in the US here.. you need to know where to buy it...this was also a gift for mrs.. i did not realise and it slipped my mind that it was her Birthday on Friday till Marcus in the evening told me.. that it was mummy's BD and are we going to get a cake??...lucky we bought this purse for her.

This Toy Story set .. we bought it from Target as it was a slightly damaged box.. and was priced at a reducution of 20USD... not too shabby..

During the week and cause of the summer weather here.. bugs were out in full force.. and after moving 2 days into my new apt here.. mrs started complaining about the bugs she sees around the house... wanted to buy those normal bug spray.. but a coworker told me to go check out HomeDepot and buy this item called HomeDefense.. i bought it, used it.. and after that 48 hrs now.. still do not see anymore bugs...

a lazy friday evening...

a New Home..

2011-07-21T05:46:00.006-04:00

we have been looking around the whole week.. and we sort of decided this locality... near Exit 11/12, 5 miles from work for me.. and 2 mile from the school. What i like about this area was the school as it was a a standalone school.. unlike the main campus where the Elementary , Middle and High school was all on one complex.

Furthemore this site is nearly 80% sold ... so there will be little construction except for houses like mine which will be built in the next coming months...

Kids placed that RSVD button on the lot....

We looked at the plans the developer has...and liked a particular design called the Concord.. nice size house of 2559 sqft.. which priced to $124 per sqft...

Cars and shopping

2011-07-16T17:31:00.002-04:00

looking at a couple of cars over the week and we sort of decided on the Nissan Quest.. Toyota Sienna .. these will be for the mrs...

for me.. i think it would be a dodge Journey.. or a Jeep Commander.. else a nice Ford Explorer...still looking about .. i have sort of shortlisted a couple of cars owned by private owners..and once i have my NY license and SSN.. i will proceed to purchase a car.

Over Sat.. we were out driving near Saratoga Springs.. and there was a classic BMW show going on.. we stopped by to have a looked at it.

a typical US car lot.. selling used cars..

Had Lunch at Colonie Center.. and the TRU store there were clearing stuff.. 90% off most items.. and i grabbed a total of 8 Maistos 1:18 scales for 2- 2.50USD each.. amazing deal...

I even bought a extra one Marcus to play.. and own.. its been a while since he owned a 1:18 scale car.

Checked out Lowes a local DIY store.. and gave me a lot of ideas on projects to do...i will have to think of things to do if we get a new place to stay..

a week in NY

2011-07-15T17:20:00.003-04:00

Along the week , kids went to the poor and enjoyed the water.. to cool off...the weather here in NY was absolutely lovely

saw this car.. a Suzuki XL7 7 seater... 3.5L.. 10,900 asking...

looked at a couple of houses and model homes.. to let Mrs have a feel of the houses in US...

setting sun...

New York.. a new start

2011-07-10T17:20:00.001-04:00

Sunday .. and onto NY... will be arriving Chicago O Hare Airport.. and thereafter to Albany,.... arrived Albany aroun 745pm... lucky we did not meet any delays..

was surprised that TSA opened my bag to checked this box of Diecast cars... lol.. they must have suspected it was something.

Mooncakes from KeeWah... at least i had mooncakes....

i requested the reloc company to provide this Sienna for us to transport our bags... i luv this car... i might get one if there is a used one in the mkt ...

Wong Tai Sin

2011-07-09T17:14:00.002-04:00

Sat... soon its time for us to carry on our flight to the US tomorrow..

Morning breakfast stop at a local HK store.. serving Ovaltine.. milo.. etc... Marcus luv the Breakfast here.

On the way to Prince Edward Station.. Roast pigs were being put out for sale.. for the early morning shopper..

Visited the famous Wong Tai Sin Temple.. and prayed for our safe journey to the US.. and hope all things we do will be successful. Was really humid in HK.. and i guess our bodies have not really adjusted to the humid weather in Asia.. so we were sweating a lot..

After the temple , we explored Fa Yuen Street again as mrs wanted to get some clothings from a store there.. the sizes suited her.. and thereafter , we headed back to the hotel to rest.. I really wanted to visit the AutoArt store here in HK... and i did.. was a bit disappointed with how the store looked... not really a woaa store.. looks like a normal store selling diecast cars like those we have back home ... time for dinner after our long walk to locate the store.. and we came upon this store in Wanchai... the pork and duck here was really nice.. and it was the nicest we had... its located at the junction of Hennessy Road / Stewart Road... Beside Chong Hlng Bldg.

Hk Island

2011-07-08T17:37:00.001-04:00

.. Thursday..exploring HK Island..and getting my missing Tomicas... hehehe..

came across this store which specialize in weight scale.. and we bought a baggage scale... 120HKD... cheap... cheaper than those i saw in the airline brochures on board the plane.

at least we managed to find the famous shrimp dumpling store outside sogo at causewaybay.. we had the dumplings here when we came to HK a couple of years back.. and the taste was still the same.. except the dumplings were smaller now..

evening , we stopped by a local Roast pork store to have our dinner and it was a eye opener to the kids to see a roasted pig being sliced by the cook.

from a full pig.. to slices to the tables..

they also caught a glimpse of how the pig was prepared and roasted over fire..

my babies... still luv them...

the baggage scale i bought... at least we do not have to guess now...

HongKong

2011-07-07T17:38:00.002-04:00

we planned a stopover in HK enroute to NY..

Arrived HK and we were all dead beat...we still have a long way to get to the city and our hotel.

These were the bags we had and its going to be interesting how i am going to use the public bus from the airport to the city.

lucky us , our bus stopped in front of MetroPark Hotel.. so what i suggested.. wife wait with remaining bags at MetroPark, i will make my way to find the hotel which we are booked in. Oriental Lander Hotel.I managed to have wife wait at the hotel with the kids and on i went with 2 bags.. took me 30 mins to move all bags to the hotel. After doing the checkin, we went exploring HK.

you really have to shop around in HK to find the best price.. these fans were selling in some stores at 29HKD.. and in the stores behind the makeshift stalls... these were 15HKD!!!

Bought this torch from the local night mkt... bright LED torch.. luv it.. it works like those torch you see in the movies... it project a very white glaring beam. Painful to the eyes if you are looking at the directly..

Kid's Angry Bird fan to cool them in the hot summer heat here.

The Big Move.. Home country

2011-07-07T17:34:00.003-04:00

Movers came on Tuesday and the big move began. We used back the same professional movers Asian Tigers or KC DAT. We loved the packing material and

boxes they use.

Managed to put everything into a 20ft container to be shipped to New York. Acutally most of this stuff in this container , we dun really need it.. i

guess we will have a lot to throw when the container arrives at our place in the US.

Container was sealed and ready for sending to the port.

Enroute to New York , we decided to stop over in HK. Our flight was on Thursday Morning 6am.. and the day before , our place which has just been

packed..needed some cleaning up .. i could not do everything so i had to approach my dad for help in assisting to repaint and touchup the walls of the

rooms.

I did not sleep for the past 36 hrs till we flew at 6am on United Airlines to HK. I was dead beat on the plane to HK..

but lucky us .. plane was near empty..so we had a good sleep

All comes to a end

2011-06-29T18:33:00.001-04:00

Very strange we had a meal at a local Chinese restaurant in Dresden and they had some fortune cookies for us.. when we opened each of the cookies..

they all showed these msg... is it a good omen??

We cleared all our bank accounts in Germany .. handed back our apt which we stayed for 10 months, handed back the underground parking card to the

parking management. We also had 3 nights accommodation along the same street as our apt. As this would enable making handling over some of the things

easier.

Our apt was packed in 2 days.. all items trucked and shipped to New York for a new life again. Our flight back home was on Thursday night via

Frankfurt on Singapore Airlines. Returned the car to Hertz..will miss this car too.

Arrived Frankfurt at 7pm and decided to settle the family's meal as our connecting flight was at 10 pm.

Flight was smooth and we got into SGP on Friday 4pm... we had little time to settle our stuff as our SGP apt packing up was on Tuesday and Wed.

Managed to drop by Orchard Road to spend some time shopping there, changed our US currency and settled some banking stuff. In the evening, we managed

to grab some durian to eat from stores near our place.

packing up today...

2011-06-27T01:04:00.001-04:00

household goods will be packed and shipped to New York for a new start there... sad but exciting...i hope the guys packed my items properly....

sad.. and emo...

2011-06-26T05:10:00.013-04:00

cant imagine.. we have been here for more than 10 months.. and actually we started loving this place.. and mrs did mentioned she luv here now...

cant imagine last year she said something else.. :P

kids also luv this place from what they said...

we just received Marcus Report card.. and comments on it on his German Language was surprising.. and also on maths.. but the way the report is projected is all verbal.. unlike singapore.. you are bombarded with numbers and performance.. here in Germany they stress on the child enjoying the lessons and learning from it.

Overall Comments

Language - English

Langauge - German

Units of Inquiry

Maths

Performaning Arts

PE

US work visa have been approved.. all paperwork are in order.. tomorrow the movers will be here to move our place.. and have all household goods packed and shipped....

a camera i bought from here in Germany.. cost me only 39Euro...

very weird.. we were at a chinese restaurant the other day.. and the fortune cookies for the four of us... were all so related so how or rather to our impending move..!!

back to Dresden...

2011-06-19T15:08:00.001-04:00

time to go ... it was a nice short trip... after checking out , i decided to see if i could find a spot in town to park the car.. so that we could explore and hang around Prague till later in the day..

Interesting wall pics..

a rare sight... a SLS Merc... seldom you see this around..

Czech.... with parents..

2011-06-18T17:25:00.002-04:00

Morning came.. and we all got ready to go.. but my dad who went out earlier was not back yet.. i suspected he got lost among the streets here.. he left at 815am.. and it was 915am and he was still not back.. even if he went to get some breakfast.. it should not take that long..

I waited 15 mins before heading out to look for him.. hopefully i find him i said..and thank goodness, the first turn i turned i found him. he said he was circling around he said and he did not recognise where was where.

came across this Lego Museum.. but realised it was not a official Lego store... seems someone was trying to make a quick buck...:)

we went to the tram stop to take tram 22 up to the castle.. so that return trip to charles bridge, we will walk ..

Had my first taste of the devil drink.. Absinthe!!... it suppose to make you hallucinate if you are weak .. lol

this caught my eyes.. but its a Maisto!!

did not know there is such a brand... gosh.. bought a couple back to cook...

Czech again...

2011-06-17T17:11:00.003-04:00

this is our fourth trip.. and our parents are going along with us....i am so familar with the roads till iknow which roads to void and take.

Trip took us 1.5 hrs.. and when we arrived.. decided to have our dinner... at a chinese restaurant... not too shabby the food... had some authentic oriental taste still.

booked a apartment for the night.. and it was just 5 mins walk to Charles Bridge.. so i would recommend this place to anyone.. but i had the water pressure... it was a challenge adjusting to something you wanted!Besides this issue we were happy with the unit

US business trip again..6th trip!!

2011-06-14T04:37:00.002-04:00

another trip for work to Upstate New York..went off straight after we got back from LegoLand... flew off on Sunday.. which the next day was my birthday.. Marcus did ask me if i wanted to get a cake.. i said to him.. its ok... we can do it when we all have gone to the US permanently...he showed a disappointed look.. but he smiled later and said.. we shall do all our birthdays in US when we arrive next month...

Pankcakes at the Frankfurt lounge... i luv these and went for second helpings...

Darn it , i was suppose to have 3 seats in a row to me.. but a darn Russian lady with son had to come over and said wanting to see the plane take off from the seats.. i was like WTF...

Arrived 15 hrs later.. and luv the car which was rented ..its a Dodge Charger!!

drove down to the asian supermart to check out the stores.. i have not been to the stores everysince i started making these trips

luv the room i am put in for this trip.. its a suite!!

so many places for new homes i have seen everysince i started these trips.. and so far i like this spot the best!!

the house design we are eyeing.. 4 rooms on second floor.. 2 car garage... 2400sq/ft

some typical cars you see on the roads here

The temp apt units we will be staying for 90 days once we arrive.. thereafter we need to figure out on ourselves...

some pics of our temp office toilet... strange sink...

spent a week here in Upstate New York and got back in to Dresden on 13th July

home sweet home... kids missed me.... and so did mrs.. hehehe

Day 4 : Sat.. and on the way back

2011-06-04T13:00:00.002-04:00

drove back today... but snapped no pics... hiaz.. am going to leave on a biz trip tomorrow morning...

Day 3 : Legoland Günzburg

2011-06-03T17:00:00.003-04:00

the park was a short 30 min drive from where we were staying..

Breakfast at Orange Hotel was very simple and what i dun like about it was the lack of staff clearing up the tables when someone has their breakfast done. The dinning room where breakfast was served was inadequately equip with very few tables.

We waited like 20 mins for a table to be cleared.. which in the end we shifted/moved all plates to the table beside us. I was not pleased with the level of service here.

we could enter the park another day as the package we bought gave us 2 day park entry with 2 nights hotel stay.. works out to nearly 400Euro..

we were there before the gates opened.. and boy was the crowd big.

LegoMan!!..lol

Salior Girl..

Marcus was on this ride which spun 360 degress around.. too bad Rachel could not go on it... as she was a tad short.

It was star wars theme over this long weekend.. so if you are a Star Wars fan.. you can related to some of the scenes here.

Munich Airport

Nieuwenstein

Allianz Stadium in Munich

Time for lunch , and we had dinner at this Dino restaurant... darn it.. again not enough staff.. by the time we sat down to have our meals it was 30mins later..

Had our dinner at another Chinese restaurant.. this time in Ulm Zentrum..food was so so... but the place was decked out in zen design furnishing..

these were the minifigs i dug out in a bin.. to fill a bag for 15Euro.. i spent 3 hrs digging..and i dug nearly 80 minifigs... hehehehe

Day 2 : Legoland Günzburg

2011-06-02T17:29:00.004-04:00

checked out from Etap.. and made our way to Legoland.. was going to be a 1 hr drive.. still have to stop for breakfast.. decided to do Mcdonalds.. since it was quicker...

we were hoping the park will not be packed....

finally arrived.. and park was not as packed as we anticipated..

Minature world Lego...

Kids waiting for their turn on the Hyundai car ride.. it was basically a electric powered car..

Next stop ,Fabric factory... here you learn about the fabrication of Lego blocks

Made a set of name plates for the kids.. to hang into their own rooms next time once we move..did our lunch at this outdoor snack booth..

their after more rides

This was a wet spot.. and we dorn the kids their raincoats.. and let them have a go at the water canons.. you are supposed to shoot the boats with ppl in there when they pass by.. the ppl in the boats also have water cannons.. so they will shoot back..

Kids went up the Viking ship.. which was a trill ride for Rachel.

about 6pm , we bidded farewell to the park as we were hungry and also we have not checked into our hotels yet..did dinner at a Chinese restaurant near Ulm..

After dinner , we ventured into Ulm Zentrum to check out the magnificent Gothic Church.

can you imagine when this pic was taken it was just close to 9pm.. and its so bright still!!!

made our way to the hotel and checked in.. we had 2 rooms.. 2 per room.. so it was comfy

Day 1 : trip to Legoland Günzburg

2011-06-01T17:43:00.004-04:00

Since 2th June was a public holiday(Accession Day) here in Germany , we made plans for a trip to Legoland over the long weekend. We did the Package deal with the Lego website which does 2 nights stay with 2 day park entry tickets... works out to 400Euro for the whole package which i think its dollar for value.

we headed off tonight after i got off from work so that we could spend a night in Nuremberg before heading to the park for a full day. We wanted to utilize the park tickets as much as we can by getting into the park early. Expected the park to be crowded as it was a public Holiday.

Drive to Nuremberg was good.. and we stopped over at Etap Nuremberg for a night there.

Sports day at Marcus school..

2011-05-30T16:28:00.000-04:00

mrs was down at the school for the Sportsday.. Rachel was excited and wanted to join in.. and mrs said when she came home , she was doing the flips on the mattress..

Marcus in the red cap.. was happily participating

Day 3 : Back Home again

2011-05-29T17:30:00.003-04:00

Time to make the trip back.... i told mrs lets go via Czech since we still had the valid Toll from our trip to Hungary last weekend.

we shifted the car nearer the hotel entrance to enable easy loading of the bags

the parking meter.. but its frei during the weekends here!!..

Decided to explore the town since the weather was fine today..before we headed back

had a little chicken stew at the city center.. nice.. tot it was spicy from the color but it was not..

IceCream again for the kids..

off we went after we finished up walking about the town center.

stopped at about noon to have lunch on the polish side...before continuing the journey to Prague..

Arrived Prague close to 6pm... but as there was still light we took pictures first before having our dinner... was up at Prague Castle..and after it we made our way down to Charles Bridge

Crossing Charles Bridge brought us into the main old town area.... again we did TGIF for dinner... lol...i was getting a bit tired of the taste.. but i noticed that the way the ribs are cooked.. i still like the ribs at Norway's TGIF the best..

after dinner we walked back across Charles bridge to pick our car up.. to make the drive back home...

Spring time sunset is so stunning... nice pics taken by mrs.. while i was driving...

Arrived close to 940pm.. with plenty of time left for the kids to wash up and take a breather..