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The Taiwanese woman we met at the International Cafe invited me to join the quilting class on Friday. It’s a outreach ministry of Network of Nations, a Christian group. The ladies are mostly the spouses of International students. They accompany their spouses who study Masters or PhD at the University here. As they cannot work and have their mornings free, some of them go for English classes and they meet regularly at a house near the university for craft/sewing/cooking sessions.
Since the meeting place is not within walking distance, I planned to take a commuter bus to go there. However, T found out his father would be running errands in the morning and could give me a lift, so I didn’t get a chance to take the bus yet.
There were about eight of us were there, three other Asian women are from Taiwan, China and Indonesia. The Indonesian woman was very happy to learn that an American woman and I can speak Indonesian/Malay. She wanted to teach us cooking some Indonesian dishes! We spent time chatting and getting to know each other while our hands were busy with the quilting. Actually, we were doing the cheater quilt. We sew on the pre printed quilt instead of starting from fabric pieces. 
We got a pair of used washer and dryer for a steal but ended up have to resell the dryer due to it being a gas dryer and we have only electric hook up in the laundry room at the basement. It’s necessary to get a dryer as we won’t be able to dry the laundry on the lines when the weather turns cold.
They are many people in the opposite situation i.e. moved into a place that has gas hook up and try to get rid of the electric dryer. So, we have been looking at craiglist.com for a reliable ,less than two years old used electric dryer for a couple weeks. We did find some very good deals. But T was concerned about hauling it home and bring it down to the basement, and it’s not worth hurting our backs doing that.
We finally decided to get a new one from the store today, so we don’t have to worry about delivery and installation! We went to Sears to check out the GE dryer that we saw online. It was priced at about $750 on sears.com.(not including all the taxes and delivery charges, which will be about $100+)
But then we saw a LG dryer that in the same price range, has the same functions and a larger capacity, but was on clearance due to a scratch on the top of the dryer. We don’t mind the scratch as it ’s hardly visible and saving of $200 is a substantial amount of money for us who are just starting out.
So, we decided to buy the LG dryer instead. They are going to deliver the dryer on Tuesday morning and I am looking forward to clear the laundry piles.:-)
T’s parents wanted to buy the dryer as a gift for us. Didn’t want them to spoil T or denied them a chance to help us out, so the compromise was: we paid 2/3 and they paid 1/3!
We went down town to shop for warm clothes and household stuffs after dinner. We wanted to check out the dryers at Sears but it was closed when we reached there at 7.15 p.m. In this small town, most stores close at 9.00 p.m and some close at 7.00 p.m!
We first went to TJMax, a discounted store, it’s quite small, thus the selection is quite limited. Found a few trousers that I like, but could not find the “short” ones, the “normal” and “long” ones were too long for me. Bought a pair of jeans that has the “short” version and two pairs of tights. Also went to JCPenny, which’s just a few blocks away, bought half a dozen of warm socks and a pair of chenille gloves, we bought a little over $10 so we could pay with the $10 coupon we got in the mail! (That’s how desperate the retail businesses are trying to get people into their doors!)
Then, we went to Target, bought some hand towels and washcloths. These towels and washcloths which were at least $2-$4 per piece were on sale for $1.58 per pack, four washcloths in one pack and two hand towels in one pack. Though they are not the plush and soft type, I prefer the thinner ones, they are easier to dry and save on energy.
Though we do have enough hand towels and wash cloths, they are all in brown color and got mixed up a lot. So, we got them in two colors, beige for T and green for me, so they don’t get mixed!
We also checked out the clothes drying rack. We saw one selling for $29.99 on target.com, but it’s not available at the store. Drying racks are probably not very popular here as most people just dry their clothes in the dryer. We wanted a rack to hang the almost dry and some of the sweaters as dryer tends to shrink them.
Actually, this chrome metal drying rack is quite small and won’t be able to hold too many clothes., but it’s the better built one that we can find. We actually found a wooden drying rack almost the same size of this metal one at the garage sale two weeks ago and paid $2 for it.
This wooden rack is quite light, it was blew off from the balcony on the second floor to the lawn few days ago! Despite falling from 12 feet height, it’s still in tact and nothing is broken. It might look flimsy, but it’s surprisingly well built!!
In the last two years, in fact, in all those years as a bachelor, T often just had some junk food, coffee or skipped the first two meals of the day totally! By dinner time, he would be so hurry, he would have eaten a horse, if it’s available!
A combination of heavy dinner at odd hours and then late night snacks in front of TV. Are you even surprised he put on back the 30 pounds that he lost in the first two years of our marriage? Since he wanted to lose weight and stay healthy, we thought bring lunch to work might help.
As a start, we got a food container from Walmart, it’s not strictly a Bento box, just a plastic container that has two compartments.
The first day, I cooked a little extra during dinner and have the leftover Ginger Onion Chicken to go with the rice. Cut some celery and tomatoes for some extra fiber. It’s good that T loves vegetables! He just put the vegetables on a plate and reheated the rice and Ginger Onion Chicken in a microwave.
The next day, there was no leftover from dinner because he cleaned up all the Steamed Asam Catfish we had for dinner. So, I made him two slices of Peanut Butter Sandwich with Blueberry Jam, egg rolls and cut half an apple.
It went on well for the rest of the week except for one day he came back with the lunch unopened as he was too busy that day. It’s cold in the morning, my brain might be still trying to defrost, in a blur, forgot to take pictures of his lunches! I prepared most of the food at night, some days the lunches were all packed, he just have to take them out from the refrigerator and go.
I went on to purchase a Clickety Click three-tier Bento box from Ebay.
Thought the yellow Monkey who says “My name is Mink, I like to read the fantasy story. I am very excited when I read” is so cute, though T is not totally impressed with a monkey lunch box. He thought it’s for the little boys, not a big boy like him.:-)
We could see the mall from the highway the last time we went down to the Korean grocery store in Naperville, but we did not stop because we were in a hurry. Since today is T’s day off from work, we decided to stop on the way to check out the Chicago Premium Outlet mall.
This is indeed a shopper haven, you can find 120 impressive name brand stores all at one mall! Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Brooks Brothers, Calvin Klein, Coach, Elie Tahari, Gap, Giorgio Armani, J.Crew, Kate Spade, Kenneth Cole, Lacoste, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Salvatore Ferragamo, Sony, Theory and many more.
When you hear the announcements in English and Japanese, you could guess they must have a lot of Japanese tourists shop here. We do see a lot of Asian women who look like they were tourists buying handbags at the Coach store. I do wonder the woman who bought more than ten Coach handbags resells them or just a Coach fanatic?
We were there for about one and half hours, we could hardly “see” everything, in fact spending more time backtracking T who sat on the benches along the stores instead of going with the shopping flow! It’s fine since it was just window shopping. The name brand clothing and shoes may be less expensive compare to Asia, but they are till high priced items. However, you can still find bargains for things on closeouts or last season’s clearance. I found a pair of really comfortable leather shoes for about $10 after 80% discount!
My in laws are in their 60s. After battling with cancers and illnesses for the past 10 years, they decided to sell their house and moved into a retirement community. Though they still lead an active life, they could not cope with yard work and maintaining a house anymore.
The retirement center is built on 30 acres of scenic campus with park-like setting. There are two stocked fishing ponds, large community areas, ample parking for residence and guests, garage parking and 24-hour security.
The landscaping, building and residence maintenance are contracted out to professionals. The center is run by full-time activity director and staffs who organize social and recreational activities. The other facilities include game Room, fitness center with personal trainer, library, computer resource center, craft and hobby room, wood working shop, resident Gardens.
It offers choices of apartments, duplexes, independent living, assisted living and nursing home.
The in laws at first moved into a three-bedroom apartment and stayed on the waiting list for duplexes. They later moved into a two-bedroom duplex once it’s available.
The duplexes (what we called semi-D in Malaysia) are really nice, they range in size from 1,300 to 1,700 square feet. These professionally landscaped single-level brick homes feature two to three bedrooms, two baths, and include a fully equipped kitchen, an attached garage with opener, spacious sun room, and a full basement.
All interior and exterior maintenance is done for them, the lawn is mowed for them. The retirement center offers flexible dining plan and serves three meals daily at the cafeteria. The retirees can bring guests and can also reserve private dining rooms for special events.
The in laws usually have breakfast on their own, and if they do not feel like cooking lunch and dinner, they order meals at the cafeteria. Then, they just drive or walk over to the cafeteria during designated meal time.
The food at the cafeteria is prepared by professional cook. The in laws brought me there for brunch yesterday. They have good cooks, I must say. The food not only delicious, they are prepared the healthy way too. The retirement center is pretty well designed to ensure personal independence and quality of living. I really don’t mind living here when we retired in future!!
Most of the people who live here are in their 70s and 80s, the oldest man lives here is 105 years old! He drove a car until recently he decided to surrender his driver licensse and gave his car to his grandson (who must be in his 60s!). Parents in law who are in their 60s are the youngest couples here!!
We bought a pair of GE washer and dryer off a co-worker of the big boy. The co-worker just recently moved in with the boyfriend, so they were trying to get rid of the extra pair of washer and dryer quick and cheap. The pair were at least $900 when they were bought new from the store 9 months ago, we got them for $200, it’s a good deal, isn’t it?
The washer worked just fine, but T only found out we have electric hook up at the laundry room in the basement, and the dryer needs a gas hook up! Alas, we have to sell the dryer and get an electric one. We listed the gas dryer on craiglist.com yesterday, to sell it for $150.
We had a couple of people called or emailed to inquire immediately, one guy suggested we trade with his 3 years old electric dryer (he just moved into a house that has no electric hook up, only gas hook up), another guy is going to come by this Saturday to look at it and may take it right away!
If we manage to sell the dryer for the asking price of $150, that means we only pay $50 for the washer! It’s quite a crazy experience, isn’t it?
*We ended up selling the dryer to a Mexican couple who hardly speak any English for $100 !
Despite of the long flight, I was too excited to feel the tiredness yet. But I know it would take a few days to adjust to the time difference and get over the jet lag. We dropped by the in laws’ home, gave them the Choya plum wine and some knick-knacks I picked up for them during stopovers in Seoul and Tokyo.
T and his parents were eagerly following the game, wanted to know whether the Chicago White Sox got into the playoff. They have the HDTV turned on but the voice muted, so we could talk while they follow the game. I have never touched the batting gloves and can’t tell the head from the tail nor have any idea about the rules of baseball game and how it’s scored.
However, it’s quite exciting to know history might be created on the day I arrived here! Apparently, both Chicago Cubs and White Sox have not been in the post season together in 102 years, or since the 1906 World Series. In fact, someone had predicted that the likelihood of this happened is like Mars passing a mere 35 million miles from earth, a summer movie about a horse drawing more than flies or a Kennedy kin entering politics in California — as a Republican!:-)
