LenJayUS

technically... all the military people make the same salary based on their years of service and pay grade... single or married. Those that have a family get to live off post if there is a shortage of in-post housing... so they get paid a housing allowance. They also get paid for eating with their family as well... so they get paid for rations. Rations (BAS) was around 300.00 a month when I was in... BAH depended on your location.

Easier send then done about everyone making the same thing though... I guess technically you can say they all get paid the same... those single people get a free room so they don't get BAH... and they get to eat for free in the mess hall... so no BAS.

Not sure if this will help either of you or not.... http://www.openoffice.org/ it's a free office type of program that mimmicks alot of the MS office products.

our main way to keep connected is via AOL Instant messenger... we have yahoo and msn messengers as back up as well... and we normally just type back and forth... very rarely do we do voice on the computer at all.

There's the occassional phone call as well.

And we used to chat alot on an IRC network as well.. but lately we both been "hiding out" on aim :-)

I think the voting should be for who we thing should get axed... who gets the most votes leaves.. not the other way around... :-)

This was the first time I watched it... and I missed the first singer... They all were probably pretty average from what the judges were saying... I did like Lisa's little signing in the recap at the end.

I definately did not like Mandisa's performance and act at all. She'd be my vote for the weakest link :-). Paris's singing I liked, but not her performance. Taylor I didn't like much either.

For the gals, my vote would end up going between Katharine (I think she sang the best out of all the idol wannabe's), Kellie, or Lisa (in that order).

For the guys, my vote would end up going between Ace or Chris. I'd have to see more out of Elliot to make my mind up about the "funky whiteboy" as Paula called him.

You know my opinion on the matter.. we've had some heated debates about it on Ace :-) but for the rest of the people....

Yes, I think that immigrants to what ever country should do as much as possible (each person is in a different situation) to try and learn the language and intergrate the countries customs and mannerisms. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be able to follow their own countries customs, or speak their own language to others that know it... but they should attempt to meld into their new society as well.

I didn't immigrate to Germany, but I was stationed there for over 4 years. It wasn't required that we learned how to read, write, and speak German, or understand their customs - but they did give us a week long class to help us get by in Germany. Headstart I think they called it.

I learned enough to go out into public and show the local nationals that I was attempting to speak their language, and just about everyone was appreciative of that. They all spoke English as well - English is the world's business language so they are required to learn it in school from what I was told - so when I got done making an ### of myself, they'd switch to english to make sure I ordered what I really wanted... Of course I usually said what I wanted and pointed at it on the menu to make sure :-D

And it's not just of different languages - there's alot of differences between the english that people in the UK speak, and what english American's speak. Hell, there's differences within the US :-). I think there should be an attempt to try and adopt to where you are living. Drug store instead of chemist, yard instead of garden, fries instead of chips, chips instead of crisps, etc... otherwise there's going to be a language barrier with locals, despite the two people speaking the same language.

If for what ever reason I end up living in the UK, or even visiting, I'd try and adopt things fully. I'd expect someone coming here from where ever to try the same thing.

wouldn't you agree that it takes a pompous a$$ to turn a thread showing support for those people defending people's rights and dieing in the process, into a political or religious debate?

Way to turn a post to show support and respect for soldiers into a mudslinging contest. Those of you that did should feel very highly of yourselves.. job well done.

And to the poster who's husband is a civilian. Yes, they get overlooked. And they do deserve some kudo's as well. But I've been there, and I know what they do and don't do. They didn't have to deploy - soldiers have to or they face legal consequences. They volunteered to join yes, but not to go on a deployment. At times, they are put into harms way.. versus the soldiers who go out to find the harms way. The soldier's job is war, the civilian's job is support.

Flame me if you want to, but the two are in totally different situations.

Cheeky - you coming to Charlotte, or is it a lay over? I've never been there (well, once.. along time ago) so I'm not sure how close to the gate I can get... I'll be at baggage claim most likely if I can't find a definate place where I can meet up with Jay.

the door has a lock on it :-D

Be ye Republican or Democrat it is not too early to be thinking of your 2008 vote. My mind is already made up.

Presidential Candidate 2008

MY CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008

Here we are already discussing the future President of theUnited States in the Year 2008. Well, I have my own candidate and I'm sure that once you know who I'm for, you will also agree.

For those of you who would like another choice for President, I have the best solution:

It is probably time we have a woman as President. My choice, and I hope yours as well, is a very special Lady that has all the answers to our problems.

PLEASE give it a thought when you have a moment....

MAXINE FOR PRESIDENT!!!

Very eloquently put............don't you think?

Maxine on "Driver Safety" "I can't use the cell phone in the car. I have to keep my hands free for making gestures.".......

Maxine on "Housework" "I do my housework in the nude. It gives me an incentive to clean the mirrors as quickly as possible."

Maxine on "Lawn Care" "The key to a nice-looking lawn is a good mower. I recommend one who is muscular and shirtless."

Maxine on "The Perfect Man" "All I'm looking for is a guy who'll do what I want, when I want, for as long as I want, and then go away. Or wait nearby, like a Dust Buster, charged up and ready when needed."

Maxine on "Technology Revolution" "My idea of rebooting is kicking somebody in the butt twice."

Maxine on "Aging" "Take every birthday with a grain of salt. This works much better if the salt accompanies a Margarita."

"I'm telling you ... she's the perfect candidate."

"My thoughts exactly"

~~~~~

Never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're going to like it.

If you let a smile be your umbrella, then most likely your butt will get soaking wet.

The only two things we do with greater frequency in middle age are urinate and attend funerals.

The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket

To err is human, to forgive - highly unlikely.

Do you realize that in about 40 years, we'll have millions of old ladies running around with tattoos?

Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Drinking makes some husbands see double and feel single.

After a certain age, if you don't wake up aching somewhere, you may be dead.

So don't forget, November 2008: VOTE FOR MAXINE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

There's no one better for the job.

MAXINE HAS MY VOTE ! !

the change is bad... but could be worse.. would still hold people accountable for helping them except in humanitarian cases... so employing them would still be illegal.

your missing his point. He's focusing on fixing the Mexican portion of the problem first, because they are the largest group. You can make the largest impact on everything by dealing with them first.

kill him... be done with it... fame over :-)

*waits for the bleeding hearts that hate the death penalty.*

My soon to be wife is 11 years older then me... and so far USCIS and NVC didn't have a problem with it.

I'm sure we won't have a problem with it either at the embassy either.

seems to be some really heated exchanges here... so I'll add my opinion to the mix.

As someone said, there's a difference between an illegal alien, and a refugee... cubans for example that make it to land are here legally... mexicans that cross the border are not.

America needs to get rid of as many illegal aliens as they possibly can. They need to make it harder to physically get into the country to slow the tide (I'm not naive, they'll never be able to completely stop it). They need to start holding business's accountable for hiring them. Instead of a flat fine, that hurts the small companies more then the big companies, they can come up with some kind of floating scale. Company A has a very low profit line... Company B is a fortune 500 company... Company B gets hit for more money... Is it fair.. probably not... so doubt it would fly, but oh well :-)

Yes, I know this country was built my immigrants. But they were legally allowed to enter. Different time, different country. We're dealing with now, not then. I'm not against legal immigration at all, I just can't stand the illegals.

You can have a bleeding heart all day long for illegals, and the earth, and people and what not. Turning a blind eye isn't going to fix things either. Cut out alot of the illegals getting free health care, we might see health care costs going down for the people here legally. Cut out the illegals from working, we'd probably see unemployment rates dropping. More people have jobs, more money gets spent. More taxes are made.

I do have a suggestion. There's alot of people that get some kind of public assistance... welfare mostly. Why not help out the small people, like farmers, that supposedly rely on the illegals for low cost labor. Instead of letting someone (I'm not saying everyone on public assistance is like this, but I know quite a few people that do it) sit at home all day collecting a monthly check, have them start doing some of these jobs farmers, or the local governments, and other small companies. Get a few of them together and provide them with child care training so they can watch any kids (one less excuse... I don't have a baby sitter!) and the rest go out and help out a few hours a day/week. In exchange for their work, they continue to get their assistance. They'll either continue to do that, or decide to go on out and get a real job.

I've gone to one or two ( ) in my day, but never with anyone I was seeing. I did go with a few female friends of mine once.. and that was a blast... seems like we had just about every girl that wasn't dancing on stage on in the VIP room over hanging out at our tables.

If they suddenly closed up all the strip clubs, I wouldn't be put out about it... I don't really seeing myself go to one again for anything other then someone's bacholer party... or when my son turns 18 . I know back in the day when I did go, I wasted way too much money on half naked women to turn me on and not have them help me... "relax" lol. Now if Jay wanted to go to one for a laugh, she wouldn't have to twist my arm, and you better be sure I'm buying her a VIP couch dance :-)

Of all the times I went, only once did I ever get asked to pay for alittle bit more then was okay by club rules.. and that was to see little Ms Kitty for an extra 5 bucks. I'm sure some shadey things do go on in clubs, but besides that little incident, I haven't seen anything.

I'm a picky eater... and when I was in the military, there was quite a few MRE's that I liked. Get the kind with a heater though if you can, they are much better hot then they are cold. But be careful, contray to popular belief, they do expire.

Since I've been doing this... I'll try and save you alittle bit of time on the phone.

Give it at least a week from your NOA2 before even bothering to call... 2 weeks is generally how long it takes for NVC to get your file. Call 603-334-0700. You don't have to wait to hit numbers... save you some money if you just speed through instead of listening to the menu options. If you speak english, hit 1. Then hit 5 to talk to an operator. Have your receipt number from the service center (found on your NOA's... CSC starts with WAC for example). Also, be prepared to answer a few verification questions... They asked me once for the beneficiarie's date of birth.

As soon as an operator picks up (early morning is best time to call from my experience... I've called a couple of times before 830 am, and didn't get put on hold at all), they'll ask you for the case number... in K1 and K3 cases, that's the receipt number I was talking about above.

If they don't have it, they'll say right away that they haven't recieved your case yet. If so, about all they will tell you is when they recieved it and when they sent it off to the embassy... usually just a matter of days apart.

Once they tell you it's been sent, and when... then you have to go to the DHL website.. that's who they use to ship the stuff. http://www.dhl.com.

Click on Track, then track by reference number.

You have to enter a delivery date range AND a reference number. The date range is simple... use the date they told you they sent it, up until the current date. The reference number you'll have to try a couple of options. Try each of these:

I-730

EXPEDITE NIV SECTION (Maybe Non-Immigrant Visas)

EXPEDITE IV SECTION (Maybe Immigrant Visas)

CORRESPONDENCE

Then just look for the embassy that it's going to. It'll give you the status. Don't be entirely surprised if you don't see anything right away... my case was mailed on the 24th, and I don't see anything listed yet. The 23rds just got delivered today to the embassy.

After the embassy recieves it, well, it's all up to the embassy then on how fast or slow things go. With you being from Iran, I wouldn't assume that there's a huge back log of visa's from there, but don't quote me on that... take a look in the timelines stats to try and gauge how they are doing.

As far as security checks go.. I know people say that NVC does them, but since the large majority of K-1's that I've been comparing times for, most are forwarded within a day or two... doesn't seem like enough time for them to get the case, process it, and do security checks, and then forward it within a day (that was my case, I've seen some forwarded the same day that NVC got them).

kinda figured you would babe... with your kids being here :-)

Im with Jay-Jay on this one

You wimp :-)

Next year, the US will have a longer daylight savings time... it starts earlier and will end later.. I think it's longer by about 4 or 5 weeks in 2007.

Happy Mum's day to everyone :-)

On this subject, I got a question for all of the UK born women... I'm assuming you have already moved to the US, or will be moving to the US at some point. Which mother's day would you prefer to be celebrated... the US one (this year it's May 14th), or the UK mother's day? Or are you going to be greedy and want both?

Can you add us to the pending list... Our packet should be enroute to the embassy from NVC any day now. It's a K-1 visa

I agree with you... but someone's bound to bring this up.. the large majority of the illegals can't get into the country legally... they are coming here to try and get jobs and what not... usually working in fields and making money under the table.

I don't support them at all, I think something needs to be done about them, and make it harder for them to get INTO the country.