The Marriage Thing, Not So Bad

Three years and counting. Happy Anniversary, babe.

The Lives of Others

Just got back from seeing this movie. I have to say, it's one of the best I've seen in years. It just goes to show a thriller can be totally engaging without gratuitous violence, buildings exploding, etc. This is a deeply psychological political story twisting its way through the life of a despicable, yet sympathetic, member of the East German secret police. It's his job to expose those who don't support Socialist ideals, and he chooses to spy on a playwright who seems too honest to be trusted. He becomes much more engaged in the lives of the playwright and his live-in girlfriend than he ever anticipated.

Without spoiling it, I'll say that the film was much more than a portrayal of a world filled with informants spying on their neighbors, which is compellling enough. It explores a journey to self-awareness, and the capacity of one to change.

A very enthusiastic thumbs up!

The June-athon

So I'm shamelessly copying this idea from Aimee (Jade Road) and her husband, who are walking the distance from their home to Beijing while they wait for referral. It's an ambitious venture, to say the least (somewhere near 7000 miles)! Hats off to you guys!!!!

We're not quite that determined. But, I'm getting spring fever and am anxious to set a new goal. Last spring, I signed up for exercise boot camp (and am still waking up around 5am out of habit, the only habit that stuck). This year, I've decided to walk 1000 miles between now and when we travel to China. Mike has offered to walk 1000 miles of his own. My wild guess for our referral date is about 14 months from now, and once that referral comes I can't imagine we'll have time to keep up with the walks when we're getting ready to travel. So.... that means we each need to walk about 17 miles per week if we're going to finish on time. If there actually is a speed up in referrals, we're going to have to haul ass. But that's a good problem to have!

We both got pedometers and are NOT counting distance walked around the office, to the kitchen for cookies, etc. We are only calculating walks taken outside, or on the treadmill.

As of today: 3 miles down, 997 to go!

Mazal Tov to Greg and Kristin!

Congrats to Greg and Kristin on the bris held yesterday for their son Benjamin!

A fascinating (and moving) experience for most of us who had never attended one, and exhausting for this little guy as you can see...

Whiplash

The rumormill went haywire this week. Here are the Cliff's Notes, I hope I have it right:

First, nobody thought referrals would be coming for a couple weeks. Then, they suddenly showed up yesterday. Hooray!

Then, reports of referrals up to 10/24/05. Boo.

THEN, reports of referrals for LIDs up to 10/31! Yeah!!

But only for some agencies. Huh??

And then reports of families with LIDs of 10/24 that were skipped even though other families with the same agency got referrals. Major major suckage.

It seems as though the "pay to say" program is now being implemented, in that agencies are ponying up for info on their LID dates, rather than having the info publicly announced every month. It also seems like universal cutoff dates are a thing of the past... it may all depend on how many dossiers a matcher has to match with a specific agency.

It's early days, but I think safe to assume that for the time being, we will have even less of an idea of what's going on inside the hallowed halls of the CCAA...