Arazia

His hair, because it's red. Although he has beautiful eyes, too. And no, it wasn't a determing factor, but it is certainly nice.

August of 2004, I think. I lose track of the exact date we first met sometimes.

Whatever gets me/him there cheapest. And I prefer American if I can help it.

Personally, I would be curious as to if these numbers include those with Asperger's syndrome or high functioning autism. Both are conditions that only began to be diagnosed within the past twenty years or so when there started to be some recognition for autism being a spectrum disorder, where different people have different levels of symptoms and such.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who just see this as the 'flavor of the day' diagnosis, which makes it difficult for people who have legitimate disabilities to get help. A lot of people who were overlooked as children because they weren't quite the stereotype of autistic are now getting diagnosed with Aspergers or HFA as adults, often times when it is too late to do much good.

Of course, I come from a slightly different perspective than most, I suppose. My first boyfriend was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of thirty. My fiance' was diagnosed when he was a child. I've been to support groups at the local autism society. I've seen the people who go through this. Some will never be able to live on their own, but some have successful lives as long as they learn to adapt early.

Diet pepsi.

I think it depends on the situation. If you're talking about an older cat, and you are just prolonging it's life or it's suffering in doing so... then I would say that it's more humane just to put them down. On the other hand, if it's a young animal, and once the problem is fixed, they would be perfectly healthy... I don't see why not.

In my own situation, I spent about $1200.00 on my male cat. He had a urinary blockage, which required him to be catheterized for it to clear up. He was only two years old at the time, and otherwise perfectly healthy. We caught it early and he had no other health problems, so I had no real problem in spending that much to save his life. Almost two years later, he's happy, healthy, on a special diet, and hasn't had any re-occuring problems.

Seriously, if you're not going to at least take responsibility for your animal's yearly vet visits, then you shouldn't own an animal. In my area, yearly check-ups and shots are about $65 per animal, and that's at a discount clinic.

I'll agree that I'd like to see what gets included in the entire process for such a huge increase in cost. Although I'll admit, as someone who may be filing for AOS near that time period, I am not looking forward to dishing out that much extra money, especially as we weren't planning on getting an EAD or AP and thus weren't going to be paying for those fees.

Warning: Probably TMI

I have a few friends who are transexuals. They usually start with hormones to reduce hair growth and begin growth of other secondary sexual characteristics. The actual operation does include the removal of the 'male parts', and the skin of the ####### is what is inverted to create the cavity mentioned. They use the tissue from the rest of the parts to immitate the look of female parts ala plastic surgery.

At least I think that's correct. Innnnn any case...

Personally, I don't think it's anyone's call to make other than the horse's owner.

I guess our first 'date' was him taking me out for Chinese food the weekend after I got there. It was a little strange to go to this very ornamental Chinese place where everything was ordered in Dutch. We also went out for Valentines day, but had a hell of a time finding a place that was open. Finally his mom found a Greek restaurant and they were giving out flowers.

Manual toothbrush, electric toothbrush (although both of the last ones I bought broke ) and floss. I think taking care of your teeth is important, although I'll admit to not having done so quite so well in the past.

I would probably come on now and again when I'm bored and want to share information, but I'm sure that I probably will have a lot of other things (like the rest of my life) to get on with after all this is done.

We talk via 'text' (but not text messages - more like IMs) during the day. At night we try to call each other for at least a few minutes. It's not so much about having deep conversation or having anything in particular to say, but just catching up on each other's lives and how we're doing, how we're feeling. I've gone without talking to him for a long time, but now that it's become a regular thing, I don't think I could go more than a few days without hearing from him. And last but not least... I do think there's an extreme end to everything. I could talk for hours, but probably couldn't spend an entire day doing it, especially not more than a few days in a row.

I like helping people/sharing information, as well as asking questions and clarifying information for myself.

I was wondering if it is required to submit entirely new documentation for the I-864 application. What would be considered a 'valid time period' for an employer letter, bank letter, etc? My employer letter was done in mid-December, and my bank letter in early January. We plan on marrying in the United States and filing for AOS by May of this year (pending the visa comes through and such). So I was wondering if I can use the same bank letter and employer letter that I used for the I-134 at the embassy level.

Note: The reason I ask is that neither letter was really easy to obtain in my case. We had a poor lady at the bank held up for almost an hour trying to calculate stuff out. And at my work, it isn't as easy as just asking for a letter. You have to fill out this whole form explaining everything and then it has to go up to human resources and they have to manually check everything.

Harry's re-scheduled medical went okay. He warned the doctor in advance that he had a fear of having blood drawn and of needles (as well as having a form of anemia), and asked to do the blood last. The doctor insisted on doing that first though. By the end of the exam, he was shaking and had really high blood pressure and heartrate because of it. The doctor apologized and said he should have listened and done it last.

Harry still isn't feeling well, but at least that part is over.

Eighteen days between now and the visa interview.

I talked with my parents about the schedule of things, and right now (pending everything goes okay) it looks like this:

First week of March - Harry Arrives

Third week of March - Get SSN

Early - Mid April - Courthouse wedding

I have to work out with my parents when to have a wedding reception, they are paying for it and actually know how to schedule things like that, I haven't a clue. My best friend wants to throw a wedding shower but I'm leaving organizing that up to her. I also have another relative getting married this spring, so we somewhat have to work around that, and my parents going on various trips. Gotta love your marriage playing second-fiddle to everyone else. Oh well. Bad timing.

Well, just to update folks...

Harry had to re-schedule his medical due to a bad train accident. Essentially, the train right infront of his (note this: this is the train he -would- have been on had he had his x-ray prior to the medical... so at least that's one good thing to say for doing things out of order? Maybe things happen for a reason.) got into an accident and he was stuck on the train behind it for a few hours. He rescheduled the medical and the x-ray. X-ray is tomorrow at 9am, and medical is tomorrow at 10am. He's going to stay with his Aunt and Uncle who live near Amsterdam (I think?) for the night, so that hopefully there aren't more train issues tomorrow.

Not to make you worry Arazia but, I would have him to double check that before going all the way to Amsterdam...

No way to do so. He has to leave for Amsterdam before they even open in the morning.

Arazia.....he doesn't want to call the xray clininc again just te be sure? Well, maybe they are doing things differently now, but from all the stories I have read about people doing the same thing they all have to go to the xray clinic first and then an hour or so later they have the doctor's appointment.....then again, like I said, maybe they have changed a few things.....

Em&Ed... That is what the x-ray clinic told him. It's too late now to call them again as it's too late there and they aren't open and tomorrow is the appointment. I'd prefer if he'd come on and explain himself rather than me answering for him, but right now he's refusing to do so.

I don't know what to say or do. He has confidence that everything will be fine and that the doctors know what they're doing. I guess I'll update when I actually have information on how it goes.

Arazia.....did Harry call the doctor in Amsterdam before sceduling an appointment with the xray clinic? It all sounds a bit weird to me. If I remember correctly I had to hand over my proof of vaccination and then the doctor's assistent filled out the vaccination worksheet and told me I needed one shot which I hadn't had before.

He did everything in the order I said he did above. He scheduled his appointment with the doctor FIRST for the 24th at 10:00am. Then he called up the x-ray clinic and they asked if he could even get to Amsterdam before his appointment. He said 'probably not', and they told him to come afterwards.

I've -told- him that this doesn't add up right and doesn't sound right, but his excuse is 'they have done this a thousand times before, they know what they're doing'. It doesn't put me at ease at all, especially as everyone else is telling me differently.

I've also told him to be well prepared for having to get his vaccinations done there. To be honest, he's being a bit of a snot about the whole thing, because I'm questioning what is going on and he doesn't want to change things.

*sigh*

Jac / Mark:

Yeah, I know it sounds really weird, and that is why I'm uncomfortable with it. He has read the instructions. Basically, what happened is this:

He scheduled an appointment with his normal doctor on the 22nd. The normal doctor called back and said it might take an extra 2 days to get the vaccinations he needs (which would put it to the 24th). Somehow, messed up the dates in his head and scheduled the medical for the 24th.

When I pointed out the problem, he called them up and asked to re-schedule. They informed him that it was okay to have the doctor send them a fax verifiying he gets his vaccinations and they'd add it to his form after the exam. Then he called to make the x-ray, and they asked where he was coming from. He said Limburg. They said 'is it even possible to get here before the medical exam'. He said 'probably not'. And they said to just come after the medical exam.

At least that's my understanding of it. I don't like it, and it makes me incredibly nervous, but I can't do anything. He's not willing to reschedule anything because he believes that the people he spoke to know what they are doing and must have 'done this a thousand times before'.

Merf *sigh*

My parents live in an area in Wisconsin where this problem is becoming common. They even tried to pass a law to make it legal to shoot them. I think live traps, or trap-neuter-release programs are the best and most humane way of handling the situation. Really, what causes it is people who don't spay or neuter their animals and then the issue just multiplies. I find this happens a lot in rural areas where people get a cat to 'de-mouse' the barns and don't want to spend the money to get them fixed. And given a few years, you have kitties kitties everywhere.

Not much to update, but Harry has his medical and x-ray on the 24th. He's doing some weird stuff with it, and it makes me a little uncomfortable. Basically they said he could have his normal doctor fax the exam-doctor proof of vaccinations after the exam and the exam-doctor would fill that out later. And then his x-ray is at no specific time after the exam, something about them just calling up and him going over there. I've also brought up concerns about getting the copy of that vaccination worksheet, but he thinks he can just ask the exam-doctor to send him a copy when he sends the embassy a copy. It just makes me feel ill at ease.

My most successful job search started and ended with my college's job board. The company I ended up working for called me in for an interview based on my resume and I've worked there for three and a half years now.

It's kind of interesting to read the two sides of this discussion/argument. It's this whole deal of trust vs. responsibility. Are the two really mutually exclusive? To be honest, I don't know the answer to this. It just seems like a lot of people are putting money first, and their relationship second. I've seen it more than once in discussions about pre-nups, where a person will completely want to drop a relationship if the other won't do one. It really does give you an idea of where a person's priorities are. If the two individuals in a relationship both agree, and -want- to have a pre-nup, more power too them. But forcing one on someone, definitely a big no-no.

For me, a pre-nup simply isn't necessary. I have no investments or significant things needing protecting. I trust my fiance' and I'm okay with the fact that should something not work out, things will be shared out evenly.