Extension of Nanay's Tourist Visa

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

We are currently in the process of extending Nanay's Tourist Visa for an additional six months. This would extend her stay here in the United States until October 2015.

The only thing we find odd about this extension of a Tourist Visa is that the cost to process it through United States Customs & Immigration Service (USCIS) is about three times the cost of processing the initial Tourist Visa. For sure our Government knows how to jam us up for lots of money to do a simple process.

Hopefully by the end of February 2015 we will have the confirmation that Nanay's Tourist Visa has been extended until October 2015.

The next steps after that is to change the return flight on her plane ticket and then file for an Adjustment of Status to allow Nanay to remain in the United States as an Immigrant.

We don't expect any problems from USCIS because they have no valid reason to deny us this request when they want to legalize about 10 million illegals who don't have a Passport or Visa to begin with. For their sake I (Andrew) surely hope the USCIS does the right thing on this situation. They don't want to hear me when I'm upset and mad.

Keira's 6th Birthday Is Next Week

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Next week, on February 3rd, Keira will turn 6 years old. We already scheduled a combined birthday party on Saturday, February 7th, at our friend's house since their daughter, Jaida, turns 3 years old the first week of February.

The sad part about Keira's birthday on 3rd is that Becx was already pre-scheduled to travel to Texas with her CEO to do an installation for one of their Franchise locations. This installation includes setting up and installing programming on new computer systems, setting up VoiP phones, ensuring all the connections, and database access, and accounting access, is available and working, and then testing everything out to ensure it works. This, of course, is an easy thing for Becx to accomplish as she did the same thing in the Philippines as Lead IT Person serving numerous Call Centers with computers, VoiP phones, programming, and ensuring it is always up and running properly

I feel bad that on Keira's actual birthday on February 2nd Becx will be down in Texas instead of here with Keira. Oh well we must deal with what we are given to deal with.

Keira's Animal-Princess Drawings

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

Last week Keira got into a mode of drawing Disney Princesses but she made them animals. I won't try to explain it...just look at her drawings:

Keira wants to ride the School Bus

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

When Keira stated Kindergarten she has been asking if she can ride the School Bus to school. Our school is only one-half mile from our apartment and we prefer to drive her to school and pick her up.

When it is cold or raining and we drive out of our apartment complex We explain to Keira that those kids she sees walking to the back exit of our apartment complex are bus riders for Elementary, Middle, and High School. We tell Keira that if it is cold, raining, snowing, icy, those kids still have to stand outside and wait for the bus and they have to walk from the bus to their apartment when they get home.

We explain to Keira how nice it is to be warm and dry in our car and that we care so much about her we would rather pick her up. We explain how much freedom we have to pick her up and then go to the stores along the way home.

Although we don't mind if she were a bus rider we prefer to know she is safe in our car rather than wondering if she will arrive home safely on the bus or if she missed the bus and failed to find a way home.

I miss being a Contributing Writer to Yahoo!

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I signed up with Yahoo Contributor Network in December 2011 as a way to have fun writing and to contribute to Yahoo Contributor Network.

I had numerous articles published with Yahoo and I appreciate the opportunity they gave me. Some articles were general in nature and were only published on Yahoo! Shine which was their basic posting venue. Other articles were specific where I was asked to write about a particular subject and those were published also in venues like Yahoo! Business and Yahoo! Finance.

You didn't make a lot of money writing for Yahoo! as most of the payments came when you reached 100 page views on a certain article and then they paid you a few Cents. Once in a while they would pay upfront for the article and that was nice. It was a fun adventure for me and not a way to make a profitable living.

Unfortunately in mid-2014 Yahoo! decided to discontinue the Yahoo! Contributor Network so all the writers are no longer allowed to contribute as all links have been taken down and Yahoo Contributor Network accounts have been deactivated.

The worst part is that all the articles we had published are no longer available to view even though they were published on Yahoo! and that frustrates me a bit because I am always applying for writing jobs and they ask for examples of my published work. They don't consider our family blog to be classified as published work. Since I am unable to link to my Yahoo Contributor Network profile where all my articles published by Yahoo! were located I am at a disadvantage in applying for jobs where they want to see examples of my published work.

I'm still looking for work and something will come along soon.

Making Ends Meet

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

There is a term called MAKING ENDS MEET and I believe it came from the days of sailing when Sailors would have two pieces of rope and they would splice the ends of the rope together to MAKE THE ENDS MEET and create a longer piece of rope.

The term MAKING ENDS MEET also means when you get your salary, pay, etc., from work, or in Andrew's case his Military Retirement Check, to MAKE ENDS MEET means that you have enough to pay the bills, put gas in your car, and purchase food to feed your family.

Recently trying to MAKE ENDS MEET has been difficult as the ends seem to be getting farther apart. Actually we're joking about it as we are able to MAKE ENDS MEET it just happens that sometimes you end up with people, organizations, businesses, etc., making unreasonable demands on you that you are not able to meet due to having to work around your scheduled paydays and pay schedules.

Oh well we are doing the best we can and if some cannot understand that, and accommodate that, and work with us, then we will continue to do the best we can and see how it all works out.

Conclusion to Undeliverable As Addressed? Huh?

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

We received the package in the mail today from the United States Postal Service (USPS).

The first thing we did was check how the address was on the label of the package. It was our name, address, city, state, zip and the apartment number was there.

The USPS tracking number was correct.

The only conclusion we can come to is that the Post Office, when they sorted the mail on January 20, 2015, accidentally put our package into the bin for a different Mail Carrier. When that Mail Carrier was delivering his mail he realized he had leftover items and realized the one for us was in his truck by mistake.

So we conclude that on January 20, 2015, they returned the package to the Post Office and they sorted it correctly this morning and our regular Mail Carrier delivered it to us.

Once again I have to state that I understand mistakes happen and I've sure made enough of them over my lifetime.

However when mistakes happen that affect us then I have to complain and demand better customer service. I can be the wrong item sent to you by Amazon. It can be the wrong meal delivered to your table at a restaurant. It can be Pogo game site where I play a lot of games and they malfunction 25 percent of the time.

Although malfunctions on websites will happen, and incorrect merchandise will be sent to you, and a wrong meal will be delivered to your table, unless all of us demand better customer service then the level of customer service will continue to decline.

At least we got our package with the cover for Nanay's tablet computer.

Update to Undeliverable As Addressed? Huh?

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

Andrew went to the US Post Office in Duluth where our package was labeled as UNDELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED.

He spoke with a woman who works in the RETURN room which means anything that the Mail Carriers cannot figure out where to deliver them to, and they are returned to the Post Officer as Undeliverable As Addressed, she is the one who goes through those items, one by one, to determine the correct destination from their Post Officer. She told Andrew that only after they cannot determine where it goes will they return it to the company that shipped it to us.

She said the item was not in her RETURN room so it hasn't been sent there yet.

She talked directly to our Mail Carrier who has known us for 2.5 years and he immediately recognized our names and told the woman that even if there wasn't an Apartment number on the package he knows who we are and he would deliver it.

Between the two of them they concluded that the package is most likely correctly addressed with the main 2500 street number but that it may have inadvertently been placed on another Mail Carrier's truck and since they were unable to deliver it they returned it to the Post Office and scanned it as Undeliverable As Addressed.

So we have our Mail Carrier keeping an eye out for it and the woman who works in the RETURN room stated she has to process returned items one-by-one so she will keep an eye out for our package.

If the package is not here by January 23rd we need to call Amazon, tell them they screwed up the shipment, and they need to ship another item immediately, at no cost to us, and by UPS who delivers directly to out apartment door.

This, my friends, is one of the reasons I don't like purchasing online because stuff like this happens. I never have this happen when I walk into a store, pick up the items in my hand, and pay for them and walk out of the store with them. We are only running about 60 percent success rate ordering online and that is not an acceptable failure rate for me to deal with.

Undeliverable As Addressed? Huh?

Written By:  Andrew & Becx Eide

We went onto Amazon to order a cover for Nanay's tablet computer we got for her at Verizon Wireless last week.

Yesterday we get a message from Amazon that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is declaring that the package is UNDELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED. Huh?

We checked the order information for the cover on Amazon and our address is listed correctly.

We then went to the USPS website and entered the tracking number and it for sure says that the Post Office in Duluth, Georgia is declaring the package is UNDELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED.

On both Amazon and the USPS website our address is listed correctly. Therefore I can make only one assumption. The main address of our apartment complex is 2500 and then there are 26 apartment buildings so they also need to list your apartment number.

This apartment complex has been here for 30 years so not like the Post Officer doesn't know where it is located. My assumption is that Amazon took the order...they forwarded the order to the company or person who is to fulfill the order (rarely is it Amazon who actually fills the orders) and some bonehead put a different street number such as 2200, 2300, 2400, 2600, or something else which means the Mail Carrier doesn't know it is to go to 2500 and our apartment number.

I also assume on that day (January 20th) that there was a substitute Mail Carrier so they don't recognize our name. Our regular Mail Carrier has known us for 2.5 years so he would see the name and know where to deliver it.

Going personally to the Post Office in Duluth, Georgia this morning to find out what their problem is. I will report back, in a separate blog, what happened.

Keira Is Cursing Again

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Keira had her friend Ari over for a play date on Monday, January 19th.

As usual they were having a great time playing with Keira's toys, making a mess, asking for something to eat every few minutes, and of course watching music videos on the computer.

They sang along with various music videos such as Megan Trainor's IT'S ALL ABOUT THAT BASE and Taylor Swift's SHAKE IT OFF.

Then the unthinkable happened. I heard Keira cursing.

What did she say? She asked Ari, "Do you want to watch the one with Justin Bieber?"

Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That name is a curse word in our house!

I had to drag Keira to the bathroom and wash her mouth out with soap!

Just kidding...just a figure of speech.

LOL

Who Left the Toilet Seat Up?

Written By:  Andrew Eide

“Yikes!  Who left the toilet seat up?”  Have you heard this statement screamed by a woman?  Have you run in terror to hide from her as she comes out of the bathroom, anger written all over her face, after she squatted down on the cold porcelain toilet bowl?

I would like to know who made the rule that the toilet seat must be left in the “down” position.

Let’s examine the toilet seat itself and see if we can make sense out of it.  What does a toilet seat, like the one used in the home, consist of?  It consists of the toilet seat (the part you sit on) and the lid, so that is the one type of toilet seat I will discuss here.

With the toilet seat at home you have three options of what you can do with it.  The first is to leave both the toilet seat and lid in the “down” position (the most logical way). The second is to leave the lid in the “up” position while leaving the seat in the “down” position (the way woman want it).  The third would be to leave both the lid and seat in the “up” position (which I never see anyone do).

If we examine each in detail we will find out which should be the one used to make everything fair.  The first option of leaving both the lid and seat in the down position is logical. Since men have logical brains this is the usual choice for them. This not only keeps the seat clean of dust due to the lid being down but it also means that both men and women would have to lift something in order to use the toilet. This is the equitable and fair option since it affects both women and men in the same way.  The women-preferred method of leaving the lid up and the seat down just don’t cut it.  This option also dust to settle on the part you sit on since the lid is in the up position. The third option of leaving both the lid and seat in the up position is an option I never see used so I won’t discuss it further.

We see that the common design of a toilet seat is to have the seat and lid always in the down position until you want to use it.  If this were not the case then why do they put designs or decorations on the top side of the toilet seat?  If the law stated we had to leave the lid up and the seat down, then designs would be printed on the inside of the lid right?

I do not expect anyone to complain about both the lid and seat is in the down position since it is fair and equal to both women and men.  However, both men and women need to get into the habit that when you are done please return the seat and lid to its original down position.

Hair Styling

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Do you want to have fun with a woman?  Do you want to see her fret for no reason at all?  Then I have something for you to try.  The next time a woman changes her hairstyle, and it looks great, simply comment to her, “What did you do to your hair?”  This will immediately put her into a state of panic and she will rush to find out what is wrong with her hair.  She will get wide-eyed, open-mouthed, start gasping, and she will immediately run to the restroom to look in the mirror to determine what is wrong with her hair.

After a significant period of time she will return with sweat pouring down her brow.  She will ask, “What is wrong with my hair?” to which you respond, “There is nothing wrong with your hair.  I think it looks great!  I just wanted to know what you did to it to get it like that.”  She will sigh with relief and attempt to regain her composure.

I have never understood why women are obsessed with their hair.  Women cannot accept the fact their hair contains one gray hair.  If they have straight hair they want curly hair.  If they have curly hair they want straight hair.  If they have brown hair they want blonde hair.  If they have blonde hair they want brown hair.

The other thing women do is color their hair.  They usually color their hair to cover the gray and not to change the color.  Although most women with gray hair look great most women who start graying feel it makes them look old.  They trudge off to the hairdresser to get their hair colored.  The usual result after getting their hair colored is, “I don’t like the color!”  How about this concept? Don’t color it and be satisfied with your natural hair.

Speaking of complaining about hair how about when a woman gets her hair cut?  Go with any woman to the hairdresser and notice how they do the following.  First she looks at the books of hairstyles and chooses every hairstyle in the book that is for hair which is longer than hers.  She will tell the stylist, “I want you to cut my hair like this one...or that one.”  The poor stylist has to keep telling the woman, “You cannot have that hairstyle because you need to have hair much longer than what you have now.  If you let your hair grow out for 6 months to a year, you can come back and I can cut it like that.”  This will go on for many hairstyles until the woman finally concedes she must choose something else.

After the woman gets her hair cut and styled, the usual response is, “I hate the way they cut my hair!”  She will turn to her man and ask, “How do I look with this hairstyle?”  He gives the honest opinion that she looks great and she tells him that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.  A woman will say this every time she gets her hair cut.

Getting Dressed

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Women have the ability to take twice as long to get dressed as a man.  They use the excuse it takes them longer because of ensuring their hair and makeup are proper, but the real reason is they change their mind several times on what to wear.

The woman will stand in front of her closet, for long periods of time, trying to decide what to wear.  She will give the excuse she has nothing to wear when, in reality, she has too many choices to make.

The man insists the woman pick something out so they will not be late for their appointment. The woman gets annoyed at his suggestion to pick something out.  She forgets that she always offers suggestions to him on what to wear.

The other scenario is that the woman gets quickly dressed and she looks great.  To the man’s amazement she is an hour ahead of time too!  The man goes into the other room to gloat and smile and sing praises that his woman finally got ready on time!  Twenty minutes later he begins to wonder where she is.  When he goes to the bedroom the woman is now wearing another set of clothes and there are an additional two sets of rejected clothes sitting on the bed.  He asks, “I thought you were already dressed, why did you change?” to which the woman states, “I didn’t like what I was wearing.”

The man goes into the other room grumbling about being late again. After 15 minutes pass the man checks on the woman again.  She has now changed into another set of clothes and there are a few additional rejects on the bed.  The man walks away shaking his head mumbling to himself.

After an hour elapses the man gets up and again goes into the bedroom to check on his wife. They are already late for their appointment so he isn’t in a rush this time. Guess what?  She is now dressed in the same outfit she had on in the first place!  She says she decided to wear that outfit anyway!  Why didn’t she just stay in that outfit in the first place?

Then the woman tries to get the man to change his clothes into something else.  This is a defensive reaction with women.  They feel guilty that they change clothes so often and cannot make a decision that they want everyone else around them to do the same thing so their guilt is lessened.  No way! Men are not falling for that one!

Changing Your Mind

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Have you heard the phrase “A woman’s prerogative is to change her mind?”  Did you also know it is a woman’s prerogative (and in her opinion a right and privilege) to change her man’s mind too?

Women will make a decision and then change their mind just before the event.  This causes embarrassment to her man who has either made reservations, called people to inform them they are coming over, or he has committed himself for that specific purpose.  The reason this causes much pain on the man is that the woman refuses to call the affected parties and tell them they cannot come as promised.  She demands that her man call the affected parties and that he take the blame.  And don’t ever let the man make the mistake of saying, “My wife decided not to go,” or “My wife is not feeling well right now so we have to cancel.”  She will complain that he is trying to make her look bad.

Another example is making a decision to go out for dinner.  The woman asks the man, “Where would you like to eat?”  The man knows if he says a Mexican restaurant she will say she wants to go to a steak house.  He knows if he says an Italian restaurant she will say she wants to go to a Chinese restaurant.  So he takes the easiest way out and tells her, “You decide what you want to eat.  Anything is fine with me.”  This will set the woman off because she wants someone else to make the decision so that person can be blamed if it doesn’t work out.  She will try again by saying, “Why don’t you help me decide?” and the man will again mention that anything is fine with him and that she should make the decision.

The worst case of changing the mind occurs when a woman gets dressed.  A man will get dressed and stay dressed.  The woman will change clothes at least twice before being satisfied that what she is wearing is appropriate.  She also will go so far as to try to get the man to change his clothes as many times as she does.  When the man refuses to change his clothes, the woman gets upset because unless someone else is as unreasonable as she is, then she realizes she looks funny changing her clothes for no reason at all.

Men endure…but deep down inside women know they drive their men crazy with their quirks.

Are You Ready Yet?

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Does your woman constantly ask you “Are you ready yet?” but she is the one who makes you wait while she gets ready?

You have an appointment at 9:30 a.m. and you must leave by 9:00 a.m. to arrive for the appointment on time.  At 8:30 a.m. the woman asks the man, “Are you ready yet?”  The man states that she should not worry about him as he will be ready by 9:00 a.m. and that she only needs to concentrate on getting herself ready.

At 8:45 a.m. she demands that her man get dressed now so they won’t be late.  The man obliges because he is tired of hearing her complain that he is not dressed yet.  At 9:00 a.m. he checks on her and she hasn’t even started to get dressed yet!  He calculates the time needed for her to shower, do her hair, put on makeup, check everything three times, and then get dressed. He determines they will leave at 9:30 a.m., if that, and they will be late for their appointment.

The man gently pushes the woman by saying, “(name), please, we needed to leave at 9:00 a.m. to get there on time for our appointment at 9:30 a.m.  If we are not there at least 10 minutes before our appointment, they cancel the appointment, charge you for the missed appointment, and it takes weeks to get another appointment set up.”  The woman takes offense to this and says, “That’s okay we won’t be late.”  She doesn’t realize they are already late.

If the man makes the comment: “Why do we always have to be late for appointments?” the woman takes offense and claims they are not “always” late.  The man tries to soften his comment by saying, “You’re right.  We are not always late, but we are late most of the time.”

The woman is finally ready by 9:30 a.m. and they are out the door.  They arrive a half hour late for their appointment. They find out their appointment was cancelled and given to another person and they got charged for missing their appointment by not cancelling ahead of time.

If you want to be on time you need to follow the instructions of your man.

 

Happy New Year 2015

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Here we are on January 1, 2015. We begin the year 2015 with hopes and dreams that things will be better than last year.

Before I list things I’m thankful for going into 2015 I would like to take you back to when I was a teen growing up in California in the late 1960’s. Back then we had the saying “NEVER TRUST ANYONE OVER 30” so I thought about how old I would be when January 1, 2000, came and I found out I would be 46 years of age when 2000 came into being. I remember thinking how old 46 would be. Now I enter 2015 at 61 years of age and I have no plans of slowing down.

Here are some things I’m thankful for going into 2015.

I am thankful to have a wonder wife, Rebecca (Becx) and a great and wonderful daughter, Keira, who will turn 6 years of age on February 3^, 2015.

I am thankful that Becx’s mother, Ester, was able to come here to the United States, from the Philippines, to visit with us and she arrived October 18, 2014. We are working on an Adjustment of Status to switch her over from Tourist Visa to Immigrant Visa so she can stay here permanently.

I am thankful I received a small Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) increase in my Military Retirement Pay. With the small increase, minus taxes, I’m $20 per month ahead of my previous monthly pay.

I am thankful I have TriCare Medical Insurance, due to being retired from the United States Navy, and while most people are receiving increases of $1,000 per year or more on their medical insurance premiums, I had an increase of a little less than $9 per year. Yes, you read that correctly, per “year” not per” month.” With insurance that covers all pre-existing conditions, with small office visit co-pays, and very low prescription co-pays, and no out-of pocket cost sharing, with no yearly and lifetime caps on payouts from the Insurance Company, I feel truly blessed.

Although my health is not “excellent” as I would rate is as “average” at least I’m alive and moving so I am thankful for that.

I hope as we move through 2015 that not only will the situation improve for us but also for every country on the planet.