It's time for goodbye....

The flowers are blooming....the yard is starting to look absolutely amazing. The hydrangeas in front and at the side of the house are spectacular!

It's just the right time to say goodbye when the place is looking quite beautiful.....we'll definitely be leaving here with fond memories =)

Chubby Chucky....

There's a woodchuck that likes to roam around in our backyard. I'm not sure if it's a "he" or a "she" but I have named it Chucky.

Chucky is really chubby. I love to watch Chucky move 'cos its cute ass wriggles a lot. It's an absolutely hilarious sight!

Chucky is also very cautious....it would dart into the bushes when it perceives even the slightest threat.

A short break....

We've been packing and packing and packing. Gosh I can't believe the amount of stuffs that we've accumulated in such a short amount of time!

Exams are also just over....RG has been very busy grading papers.

Our air tickets are all booked and..........we'll be back in Singapore on the 24 June 2010! Looking forward to catching up with our families and friends. And we are also very excited about seeing our renovated flat for the first time and be living there!

We have not renewed our lease for the current house in Marion 'cos my landlord was not agreeable to a shorter lease term. So we'll be homeless the next time we return to the states =( Will need to start looking for another place to rent when we return late August. Hopefully, we'll be able to find a place fast....if not, we might have to stay in some cheap motels again for awhile....heh heh heh

All our stuffs will have to be moved to some nearby storage facilities. There are plenty of such storage facilities in the states and at quite affordable prices (relative to Singapore prices). There are also storage options big enough to accommodate vehicles.

My neigbhor is obviously upset that we are leaving.....but we have promised to stay in touch. She has offered to help us keep a lookout for good rentals around the area...'cos she'd really like for us to be nearby.

We are a little sad too 'cos we have had a very pleasant stay in the house. We'll also miss all the little squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and birds that we've been feeding all this while. Oh, did I mention that the squirrels would be waiting on the deck for me in the morning to put out their breakfast goodies?! Awwww.....I will really miss those cute little rascals!

But hey, there'll be new fun experiences awaiting at our next place....so we are looking forward to the change. And hopefully, we'll be able to find our real home very soon! We are keeping our fingers (& toes) crossed.

Our little flat in Singapore has not been hooked up for TV/cable, internet and telephone yet. We might not want to do so 'cos we'll only be staying there very briefly. So I might not be able to update my blog very regularly unless I bring my netbook to a MacDonalds/Starbucks or some place with free wireless connection...but that's kind of a chore. So let's take a short break (it's SUMMER afterall!) and have fun. I'll be back again as soon as I can. Till then, take care!

[NB: Might squeeze in a few more posts before we leave US on the 22 Jun]

A leisure afternoon....

Sitting in the car (windows down, sunroof up) by the Cape Cod Canal....just enjoying the view, sun, breeze and my favorite comic book....

Natural beauty....

We were out in the yard picking flowers and leaves to make into a nice floral arrangement for the house.

Check out what we found......

Some of the flowers in the arrangement are just garden weeds....but they look soooooo pretty. I'd usually pay USD3.99 for a small bundle of flower @ the supermarket.....this is FREE and I get to pick and choose what goes into it =)

There are some sweet smelling little flowers i.e. lavender & jasmine that I had gathered and placed in little dishes around the house to make it smell nice.

Ahhhhhhhhhh....the beauty and sweet smells of nature.

Up close and personal.....

The weather was quite cool this afternoon so I decided to head out to the yard with my camera + macro lens to take some photographs.

The last time I had used my macro lens was probably more than a year ago.....it's kinda fun to be using it again after the long hiatus.

Some of the shots of the insects could've been even more magnified....but I'm too scared to go too near the creepy crawlies in case they leap onto me....eeeeks!

This is called a Bleeding Heart! I'm sure you can see why.....

Can you see that tiny red bug on the petal?? I wish I had taken a closer up shot.


Love the multi-color sheen on this little bug....
Ok I know it's rude....but I couldn't resist taking a shot of these fellas while they were going at it.... =P

The hole that rules America.....

You see a McDonalds in every major city around the world. McDonalds is VERY big in Singapore. But guess which fast food chain is especially dominant in the New England region in USA – no, it is not Burger King, KFC nor Starbucks. It is……Dunkin Donuts.

Very recently, Dunkin Donuts celebrated its 60th anniversary. Apparently, it had its humble beginnings as a coffee and donut shop in the Quincy, Massachusetts. Today, we see it everywhere. The town where we are staying now – Marion – had strongly resisted Dunkin Donuts’ attempts to establish a shop since 2000, claiming that it would lead to the demise to its charm, beauty, traditional community, and overall sense of place. SERIOUSLY???!!!!! *roll eyeballs* However, the town finally relented and a spanking new Dunkin Donuts opened its doors in April 2010.

The fast food chain is expanding aggressively – it appears that in 2009, Dunkin Donuts opened more than 350 new outlets across the world and 131 outlets in the United States. Unlike the regular donuts shops where they largely sell only donuts and coffee, the Dunkins here churn out burgers, muffins and sandwiches seeking to become the new alternative to the other fast food chains. And, as part of their expansion campaign, they have launched a very catchy advert which says “America runs of Dunkin”. At least here in New England, they seem to be doing much better than McDonalds, Burger King or Starbucks.

So the last I heard, Dunkin is back in business in Singapore (@ ION)!? I used to go to the one at Far East but that had closed several years ago. I wonder how's the new Dunkin at ION doing? Will definitely check it out when we are back in Singapore (we've not been to ION yet!).

New England is running on Dunkin, America is running on Dunkin...who knows maybe the whole world will be running on Dunkin one day!! The Dunkin donut that I love best is hole-less!! It's the Boston Creme donut.

Notice the generous creme-filled center? This one had been chilled so the creme had kinda hardened....usually, the creme would be oozy when eaten fresh at room temperature. I'd pop a chilled Boston Creme donut in the microwave (set on defrost) for several seconds to get back the ooziness! Hmmmm.....yum!

An empty box.....a very satisfied sweet tooth!
(Co-written by TT & RG)

Live, Love, Laugh.......and EAT!!!

Good food, fantastic dessert, fabulous sangrias and wonderful company....what more can a gal ask for??!!! Life is good.....

Happy Anniversary my dear!

We may look different now (i.e. chubbier, more wrinkles =P) but I'm glad our smiles and love never changed abit!

Love you....yesterday, now and forever

xxxoooxxxs

Too pretty....

I chanced upon these beautiful crocheted laces @ K's yard sale booth. I had told myself before the sale that I was supposed to be there to sell my stuffs and NOT to buy more stuffs! So I had to force myself to put the laces down the first time I saw them. But they kept popping up at the back of my head throughout the yard sale.....so towards closing time, I just had to give them another look (I swear I REALLY wasn't planning to buy them).

K saw the longing look on my face and generously offered to give them to me for FREE! She said she had absolutely no idea what the laces were for (honestly, neither do I!) and she had no use for them at all. I accepted her kind gesture and insisted that she pick out an item from my table as barter trade. I was happy that she chose the coaster set which she seemed to really love.

I'm not sure what I'm going to use the laces for yet.....but I'm sure it's gonna be something ultra sweet and pretty!

On a side-note....K was selling her 6-piece Le Creusets for $30!!!!!!!!!!!!!...and someone grabbed them before I did. Ohhhhhhh....I was so mad at myself.

There's no free lunch....or is there?

I buy my remanufactured printer cartridges from an online ink shop. Not only are the cartridge casings recycled...they are also relatively inexpensive (approx 70-75% of the cost of the genuine product). And everytime I make a purchase....they let me have the option to enjoy free 1-yr subscriptions to 4 different magazines! Can you believe it?!

Currently, I'm subscribed to Time, Fortune, Money, Shape, Men's Journal, Outdoor Photographer, Oprah & South Coast...all for FREE! So who says there's no free lunch? Or maybe it only happens in the United States.

On top of these free subscriptions...I also have a paid subscription for the FoodNetwork magazine that I absolutely LOVE!!! So you can imagine my magazine pile growing at unbelievable speed.

I'll have to get rid of them (all except my FoodNetwork mag and Oprah which I'll be sending home to ML!) 'cos they are taking up space and we really need to start packing as our lease will be ending in June. Instead of tossing the mags out....I'll be recycling them by either bringing them to the nursing home (though I'm not sure if the folks there would enjoy boring financial mags?!) or perhaps our town library might be the better option for my kind of mags. There, the magazines will hopefully get the chance of a second read.

I'm not sure if I'll ever pay retail price to buy a magazine from the newspaper/mag stand ever again.