yup- that's us

interviews, running and wedding news

So I am headed to Vancouver on June 9th for a couple of things
1. to have my medical exam *yes, that's correct, there are only 3 doctors in all of Canada that are approved by the U.S. government to perform the exam.
2. I have an interview at the American consulate to prove my legitamite love for Andrew (and I am assuming America too)

Please wish me luck

other news....the wedding is coming along (and fast approaching I might add!)

I have made a wedding website for all of you to peruse through

www.andrewandchristine.com

Oh and I am running a half-marathon next sunday ( I could use some luck here too) and Andrew will be back up in Canada to act as my personal cheerleader ( i really do love that guy)

Another letter from the US Government

More progress today! The State Department's National Visa Center received our approved I-129F visa petition, and is going to send it along to a visa issuing post in Canada within a week. Christine's supposed to get a packet in the mail soon with instructions on applying for her K1 visa (that's the one that gets her in to the states so we can marry). She'll have to go for an interview and has to complete a few other steps, but this is still good news. I'm so pleased that in this time of budget cuts and workforce reductions that the US Customs & Immigration Service seems to be operating as we should expect.

The only interesting part of this letter: it says her case will be processed in Vancouver. Christine lives near Calgary. We noted Calgary on our application as the processing center of choice. Vanvouver is 972 km from Calgary, according to Google Maps. Hmmmm.... I may have to make a phone call to figure this one out...

3 years and counting

Here's to 3,000,000,000 more.

Progress!

On Sunday, I opened a letter from US Customs and Immigration Service stating that they'd completed their review of our fiancee visa petition. This doesn't give Christine her visa, but it's one step closer. Once USCIS finished their review, they sent the application along to the National Visa Center and we're supposed to hear from them in 2-4 weeks. Then, it goes along to the US consulate in Calgary where Christine will have to sit for an interview- presumably, they ask all about our relationship and make efforts to verify that we're actually marrying for love and not convenience (which we are- living apart from my partner and fiancee is actually really inconvenient, for a host of reasons I won't go into here).

It was great to see the letter in the mail. I played it cool when I opened it but it did get my heart rate up a little because you have to just wait for the government to contact you during this process. They certainly have thousands of various petitions to review at any given time so that's reasonable I guess, but it makes the waiting a bit longer.

But, we have played by the rules 100% in everything we've done during this process and know that our fairness will be reciprocated throughout the rest of the petition process. And we're excited for the next letter, whenever it comes (please, come soon).

Aw man, I did it again

I've noticed a behavior pattern. I consistently leave huge gaps in this blog, then swear I'll improve at posting, then move right ahead by continuing to suck at posting. And so here we are again with an update of semi-currant news:

- Christine came to Seattle for a week in February, just in time for my birthday. It was the first birthday I've been able to spend with her and it was very cool to have her in my sphere. Plus she made a great designated driver after I got "tricked" into drinking more than I planned, and took very good care of me the next day. Other than that, we had a rightous time together- wedding planning, bike riding, trail running, wine tasting, sleeping in, and an awesome afternoon in West Seattle punctuated by a picnic on the beach. Plus, Horizon Airlines bumped her off her return flight home, so we got one more unplanned night together. We went to Whole Foods, bought beer, went home to watch the Oscars and eat pizza, and laughed so hard our that arms wouldn't work for quite a while.

- Christine's Subaru has a new right side mirror, fog light, some suspension pieces, a bent roof rack, and a really custom paint job after she hit black ice on the highway while going to work and became a passenger in her own car as it went off the road and up on its side. Thank Buddha she wasn't injured beyond general muscle soreness, a result of a mild case of whiplash. She's been receiving physical therapy and theraputic massage, and was back running on the treadmill just over a week later.

Although this whole situation really sucked, there was a fun part: We turned her parents' garage in Calgary into a bodyshop, and spend an entire Saturday (and $64 at Canadian Tire for materials) sanding, masking, priming, painting, and clearcoating parts of the car. And we had a great time doing it together. Christine was in there with me the entire time sanding away and getting dirty, and is definitely better at presicion masking tape work than me. Once we unveiled our work the next day, it was still sort of ugly (our paint match wasn't right) although way better than bare, rusty metal. For working in an unheated garage with one quartz work lamp and a space heater on a ladder to make the primer dry quicker (it was -20 C and blowing snow outside that night), and for doing all the work in about 14 hours, we did really well.

- Wedding planning is a bit brutal right now- we're just not that into it- but we're trying and have regrouped and gotten ourselves back together and on track. We need to pick a caterer really soon, and are doing the best we can while being in different countries. After the catering part is out of the way, I am going to be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Going through all these quotes is mind numbing; you can't directly compare any one to another, and they vary by as much as $7000 depending on the complexity and foofiness of the caterer. Mostly, we're just trying to ensure that we get good food for all our guests, and good service so our families don't have to pick up the slack. If we can accomplish that then we'll be in good shape.

I like words with two ff's in a row

Such as Banff... which is where Christine sneakily reserved us a room last Saturday night in a cool old house that's been converted to a bed & breakfast. After a half day of snowboarding at Sunshine on Friday (and getting stuck in the gondola due to high winds for nearly 1.5 hours), and a great concert in Camore (http://www.myspace.com/brasstronaut - tell a friend), and a badass session of ice skating at the Banff Springs hotel, I thought our weekend was pretty well done for. Little did I know that Christine had bigger and better plans, and guided us to the B&B under the guise of trying to find a shop where we could buy her brother a birthday gift (sorry, Thomas). It was a great surprise; we were able to get a good dinner in Banff that night, and just had a super fun time together. Plus, since every second person in Banff is from the UK, we got to practice our BBC World Report accents after a couple drinks...

Change we can believe in

This is off-topic for our little blog, but I just want to take the time to note that yesterday was a very remarkable day in America because of the inaguration of Barack Obama as our new President. There's a bombardment of hype and editorializing, and I admit that am hard-wired as a skeptic, but it just feels great and I for one am so glad and honored to have that man as our leader. My boss Charlie said it well: our economy runs on perception. Even if that's all that Obama can bring to the table (and I certainly believe he has a heck of a lot more to offer) then as a nation we're already in better shape than we were on Monday.

Another reason I know Christine is awesome

She can cook. Period.

Baked tuna with grapefruit salsa on soba noodles.

Thanks babe!

New Year's Eve

New Year's, while it can be fun, isn't really all that exciting in the broad array of holidays. So instead of trying to party like the rock stars that we are not (yet, anyway) we had a few friends come around to Christine's apartment and kept it mellow.

Mellow... that is, until the Baby Duck came out. Hilarity ensued, including a mission to accomplish some garbage bag sledding. All I can say is mission accomplished. Bear witness:

Gearing up for extreme sledding

Me, smiling, before I sledded my crotch over a rock

I have no idea who these people are...

The Lynch who stole Christmas

After Christine's indoctrination into my family's Christmas celebrations (moderate amounts of food and drink supplanted by a mink bowtie wearing grandfather and a cadre of female relatives who don't care for using indoor voices = fun) last year in Seattle, we decided to shift our yule-ness to the great white north of Calgary. I was very excited to spend my first Christmas with the Lynch family, and even with Seattle's snowy weather I was able to fly to Calgary on Christmas Eve with only a short delay.

Christmas was a very fun affair. I had not seen Christine in about three weeks, and we were so happy just to be together in the same country again. That, in itself, would have been enough of a present for me. However, since other gifts had already been tagged with my name and put under the tree, I would have been foolish to stop there. There were a number of lovely gifts, but I must highlight two in particular: hockey skates, and a down jacket. Receiving those certainly carried my Canadiazation another small step forward.

Christmas day was great- all of Christine's family in Calgary came over to open presents and tuck into the huge feast Bev cooked for us. It was what Christmas is supposed to be- catching up with family, having a few laughs, and enjoying time together. Oh, did I mention that there was snow on the ground? It's rare to have a white Christmas in Seattle, and it was energizing to go for an afternoon walk in the snow before dinner.

If all goes well with Christine's visa application to move to the states, we'll be having Christmas in Seattle again next year, but I for one am looking forward to many more holidays to come in Calgary.

Get down and stay down

Future-wife knows that figure skates are for sisses.

Christine & sister Stephanie

Moving West

So I'm moving west. But not until June/July. We're at the mercy of USA immigration here, so patience is a must.

Andrew went back to a snowy Seattle on Sunday and I started work again on monday (FYI it's in a Provincial {that's state for you Yanks} Park). My job basically consists of educating and entertaining youngsters about the environment. Not a bad gig. But, I am will be leaving in June (I know thats a long time from now, but humour me here)

I'll be moving to Seattle in June & am trying to warm up to the idea of rain and microsoft traffic. I live in a small town. When the train passes I consider it rush hour. I laugh when I watch the Washington State news and hear that schools are closing due to a "threat of snow". Hilarous.

But, I am excited to spend a winter without hitting minus 40 C on the mercury, I will be happy to grocery shop at trader joes, & the idea of green grass year round is appealing.

So I will say goodbye to Alberta- the rusty pontiacs and big trucks. I will say see ya later to the park and my high-waisted uniform pants ( I don't even need to wear a bra). I will say ciao to Canmore with outdoor pond hockey, and expansive mountain views and expensive groceries.

And I will get in the subaru and start my new life as a latte drinking, rain-boot wearing, market-shopping, sea-kayaking, p-patch growing, seahawk loving seattle-lite. But I promise you this. You can take the girl out of Alberta, but you can never take the Alberta out of the girl.