Daily Report: DaysRunTogether

I'm waiting for Epril's approved I-130 form to get entered into the system so that we can continue the process of getting her visa. Next comes a form where Epril tells the visa people that I'll be handling her application process from this point forward. Then comes the actual visa application itself, as well as my affidavit of support.

Somebody told Epril that if I had hired a lawyer, all of this would have gone a lot faster. That's so wrong: As long as no mistakes are made in the forms and attachments (and the mail service works as expected), nothing a lawyer could do would make the cogs and gears of government spin faster. Applying for Epril's visa was not that complicated, and the website VisaJourney.com has been a very valuable resource.

I was out with my uncle and cousins to a bar the other night... first time out to a bar in over 6 months. They had 50-cent pints of Pabst Blue Ribbon. That's 15 baht or 20 piso drafts for all you people over where everything is "cheap". Venice Sports Bar and Billiards also had free pool on their 6 tables, free karaoke (sung by some rather talented people), lots of high-def televisions tuned into the various sports channels, and a surprisingly good ratio of guys to girls, and young and middle-aged folks.

Unfortunately in Florida, places that allow smoking cannot serve food, and vice versa. So you can't get any bar food with your 50-cent drafts. That sucks a bit... but you can always have a pizza delivered, I suppose.

I bought an 8 GB Sony Walkman with an FM tuner to take for walks. Epril lost my old MP3 collection recently though and now I have to figure out how to get my favorite 800 songs onto this Walkman without shelling out 800 x $0.99 in the process. No, I'd rather not "pirate" them all again. I should just ask people to e-mail me my favorites. Heheh.

The dishwasher is messed up; I have to call a repair man. I bought another beef roast to cook, and this one did not come out as well. It had a large fibrous tendon layer running through the middle of it, which really made it impossible to chew. I finished the third book of Game of Thrones — George R.R. Martin sure doesn't hesitate to kill off the heroes in his books. Budweiser is now making a wheat beer, which is not too bad. The new Doctor Who season just finished: Awesome ending! I need to google how one can wash pillows. (Update: Dry cleaning.) I wish I could record Epril on her webcam singing love songs to me via Skype.

Well, still: nothing exciting is happening. I make it over to the pool every other day for a soak and a swim. I make it out to the store every other day for a bit of groceries. Uncle Bob stops by every evening for cocktails. Then I sit down to work for the evening. Epril is still on my webcam... only on my webcam. (It's been 7 months, 8 days, and 6-some hours since that was not the case... and hopefully only 3 months and 12 days more until it is no longer the case.)