Landscape with Butterflies by Salvador Dali
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Memphis, USA Manila, Philippines

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Updates? Not Much...

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: Night Fever--the Bee Gees (Tales from the Brothers Gibb)

No reason for the disco dancing emoticon other than that I'm listening to the Bee Gees...plus I'm hopped up on coffee :-). 

I wish I could say I had news to blog, but it's been pretty quiet.  Other than all the chores associated with getting ready for the move, not much has been going on.  I've tried a couple of times to write a blog entry in the last few days, but I would always end up asking myself, "Well what do I write about?  The only semi-exciting things that have happened lately just make me look like a bigger geek than I already am, like..."
See what I mean?  Geekazoid :-).  I'm sure I'll have more news soon--there's sure to be lots of activity closer to the actual moving date :-).


Posted by CC | 7:11 AM | 0 Comments |
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Google Voice ROCKS!

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: an episode of Law & Order SVU

Ever heard of Google Voice? No? Oohhhh it's {singsong} AWWWEESSOME!

Okay think about this:

My Google Voice number is 615-2800-CCS (615-280-0227)

Feature: If you call that number, my cellphone will ring. Or my home phone. Or my work phone. Or all three at the same time, if I set it up that way.
Benefit to You: That means you only need to remember one number for me. You don't need to go around saying, "Okay now what was CC's cell number/home number/work number?" It's (615)-2800-CCS. That's all you need to know.
Benefit to Me: You can reach me and yet my cell number and home number are kept private :-).

Feature: If I don't already have your phone number in my Google Contacts phone book (i.e. I don't already know you), you have to say your name and I can decide whether I take your call right then or let you go to voice mail and leave me a message.
Benefit to Me: Great way to screen junk telephone calls :-)

Feature: If you leave voice mail, not only will it let me know you left voice mail, but it will also transcribe your voice mail and send it to me as a text message and/or in an email.
Benefit to Me: I can read your voice mail almost immediately after you leave it; I don't need to call my "check your voice mail" number.

Feature: It's not tied to a location.
Benefit to You & Me: I move to Nashville in a few months. That means my cell phone number and home phone number will probably change. But you still only have to remember 615-2800-CCS, because all I would need to do is change the number/s my Google Voice number will forward calls to :-).

Feature: It's free! Well not *completely* free. Calling US and Canadian numbers is free. There's a small fee for international numbers (11 cents a minute for calling Philippine landlines; 17 cents a minute for calling Philippine cellphone numbers)
Benefit to Me: It's cheaper than Yahoo, so I can stop using (and paying for) Yahoo and use Google Voice instead.

There are more features and resulting benefits, but those are the top ones :-).

Getting a Google Voice account is currently by invitation only. If you want to get on the waiting list for an invitation, click here.

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Posted by CC | 3:01 PM | 1 Comments |
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Our Next Home

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: Nothing right now

Steve and I spent the weekend in Nashville. Our mission: to find our next apartment for when we move in early January. We had started our search in the Franklin area, and on Saturday we identified an apartment complex (as a matter of fact we already filled out an application for it). However, after it was done, I kept fretting about it, even though it was the most logical choice: the other apartments were either in a neighborhood we didn't want to live in, or too expensive. This was in the middle. But it didn't feel like the perfect fit for us, you know?

So, on Sunday, which was the day that we were supposed to drive back to Memphis I asked Steve if we could take a look at a few apartments in Brentwood. Brentwood was the original neighborhood I wanted to live in, and was the closest match to the neighborhood we live in now (thanks to http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/match/). But Brentwood is a MAJORLY expensive neighborhood. I figured that whatever rates we found in the Franklin area, Brentwood would just be even more expensive.

Turns out it's not.

This is going to be our next apartment: The Landings of Brentwood. Now THIS feels perfect. Not only is it in an awesome neighborhood, the rent is actually about the same for what we're paying now.



If you'd like to see the pictures full size, click here.

Visiting the Landings that day was very timely. They were running a special on the floor plan we wanted (2Bed-2Bath, 1002 sq.ft/93 sq.m), which was scheduled to expire at the end of that same day. The market price for the rent was $950/month, but because of the special it would be $840-890/month. Also most fees were waived, so all we needed to pay in application fees was $99. The thing that Steve REALLY liked, and what he said made it feel like the perfect fit for him, was that they had this rule: if your pets are rescue pets, then they won't charge you a pet fee for them. Katya and Jack aren't rescues, but it's nice that they have that rule. There is also no weight limit for dogs.

Now I don't expect it to be perfect. I've lived in an apartment for 5 years, I know there'll be occasional issues with maintenance and things like that. But that comes with any apartment complex. Steve and I wanted to find a place to live that was in a really nice, safe neighborhood where the rent was affordable and it was still close enough to shopping and a hospital. We found exactly that :-).

Now comes the chore of packing, and making all the other preparations for moving. But we feel really good that where we're going is just as nice (if not better) than where we are now. Considering we currently live in Germantown, that's saying a lot :-).

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Posted by CC | 7:28 AM | 0 Comments |
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Monday, October 05, 2009

Disney World! Part 2

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: the Vikings-Packers game

Steve and I reserved Days 5 & 6 of our Disney World vacation as time for going back to theme parks that we enjoyed--that meant return trips to Epcot and Magic Kingdom :-).

Pictures of Day 5: click here
Pictures of Day 6: click here

Steve and I had a fantastic time at Disney World. If you plan on visiting just the 4 theme parks, 6 days is perfect, because at the end of the 5th day we were starting to get Disney'ed out. We've gotten our fill of Disney and won't need to come back for a few years :-). Maybe for our 7th anniversary we'll take a Disney cruise to the Bahamas :-).

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Posted by CC | 7:43 PM | 0 Comments |
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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Disney World! Part 1

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: Symphony No. 41 in C Major (Sir Thomas Beehcam)--Mozart: Symphony No. 41

Two years ago Steve and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary at Disney Land and we had such a great time we promised ourselves that we would go to Disney World for our 5th :-).

And that was exactly what we did. From September 13 - 19 we were in Florida visiting Disney World for the first time :-).

Steve is also writing his blog entry as I'm writing mine so you may also want to check out his blog to see what he has to say about our vacation :-).

First of all I'd have to say that planning a trip to Disney World is definitely something that you want to do at least a couple of months in advance. I know that sounds terribly uptight, but there are good reasons for it: you have the opportunity to know about upcoming good deals (Click here to see the latest Disney World deals if you're curious). The deal that Steve and I took advantage of was "Stay at least 5 days and get the Disney Dining Plan for free." Looking back, that was the best deal I could ever have taken advantage of. But I'm getting ahead of myself :-).

The second reason why you want to plan your Disney vacation at least a couple of months in advance is that you need to make your dining reservations as soon as you book the trip.

"What?" you say. "I don't even know what I'm having for dinner tonight and I'm supposed to make dinner reservations for something that's two months away?" I thought the same thing. But it's true. And even then, when I started making reservations for dates two months away, I was getting results of "not available," even after searching for 2, 3 hours earlier or later. The Disney agents actually recommend that you make your reservations THREE months in advance.

So anyway, back to booking the vacation. We booked 6 days and 5 nights at a Disney resort, during a time when the free Disney dining plan would be in effect. The total came to $1,400. That's actually not bad, especially when you consider that that's for two people. So for $700, each of us would get:
  • 6 days and 5 nights at a Disney resort
  • Admission to ALL FOUR major theme parks (we didn't really want to go to the water parks): Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios
  • Park-hopper option (which means you can go to two different parks in one day if you wanted to--I got it just in case. We didn't get to use it though, each of the parks was way too big, you didn't need to go hopping from park to park)
  • Free transportation to and from Orlando international airport, as well as free Disney transportation from your resort to all the parks. This means you don't even need to rent a car.
  • Free Disney Dining Plan
  • Trip insurance
There are different types of Disney Dining Plans available, but the one we signed up for included, for each day that we were there:
  • one table-service meal (i.e. sit down full-service restaurant),
  • one quick service meal (i.e. food court-type meal), and
  • one snack (ice cream or fruit, things like that)
Now what Steve DIDN'T know was that, as my anniversary gift to him, I was going to upgrade us from the Disney All Star Movies Resort (i.e. a "value" resort) to the Disney Caribbean Beach Resort (i.e. a "moderate" resort).

See a video introduction to the All Star Movies Resort
See a video introduction to the Caribbean Resort

What I planned to do was wait for Disney to ship us the tags that we were supposed to attach to our luggage on the day that we leave. I was planning on surprising Steve by showing him the tags on the day that we were leaving (the tags specify which resort you're staying at so it'll be easier for the Disney luggage team to identify and sort your stuff). I even ordered a customized Lady & the Tramp anniversary card so I could put the luggage tags in there.


Unfortunately it didn't happen that way for two reasons:
  1. The luggage tags never arrived (Disney was having trouble shipping them, and I also think it's because I booked the vacation too close to the departure date for the tags to fully process), and
  2. I spoiled the surprise two days before we left. I couldn't take it. I had to tell him, it was killing me :-). Guess that goes to show you I'd be a TERRIBLE spy :-).
That morning I just went up to him and asked, "Do you want to know what your anniversary gift is?"

"Not really. I can wait."

Awkward silence.

"No really, you wanna know what it is?"

"Sounds like YOU want to tell me what it is :-)."

So I got our customized Disney World map (you can order one after you book your vacation) and asked him to open it.


I put an arrow-shaped post-it next to #13 on the list. He looked at me quizzically: he knew we were staying at the Disney All Star Movies Resort. "What about the Caribbean Resort?"

Then I pointed to map itself, where I put a "My Resort" sticker on the picture of the resort. He looked at it, and then looked at me.

"That's where we're staying?"

"Uh huh :-)."

I love that moment of dawning comprehension :-). He smiled widely and went, "All RIGHT!"

I've posted pictures with captions along with some video for each of the days we were at Disney World :-). Below is a slideshow, but the pictures are too small.

To see all the pictures full size (as well as the video), click here.

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Posted by CC | 2:26 PM | 1 Comments |
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