Crow's Nest...

This post is mainly for all the Toyota owners out there.  I recently got an oil change for my car.  I didn't go to my Toyota dealer mainly because he didn't offer synthetic oil for my car.  Seems like kind of strange but yes he told me that he doesn't have synthetic base motor oil and if I wanted one I had to provide it for him.  So I ditched him and opted for Vroom instead.  They cost me less and almost did or claim to do all those things that my Maplewood Toyota Dealer would have done.  There was one exception though.  Since my car is a 2009 model the dealer at Vroom hadn't seen very many of these and didn't have the make and model in the system.  they didn't reset my odometer.  As I had gotten my oil change at about 4000 miles the maintenance required indicator that reminds us of oil changes started blinking two days ago when my car completed 4500 miles.  That kind of pissed me off.  So I went to my Vroom people and asked them ...

the progress has slowed down a whole lot. Anyways I-35 bridge will be opening tomorrow for the first time since i have come here. It should ease the traffic woes of the morning commute for me. rush hour commute is about 30 minutes to 45 minutes for me and that is a pain on the floor months. It was particularly light traffic on 280 in the morning for some odd reason. For a while i thought that the bridge had been opened for traffic today as the latest updates talked about the announcement of the opening date in the beginning of this week. Anyhoo... the bridge has been completed atleast 100 days ahead of time. This is some solid progress. since the time I have come here the whole length of my commute has been under construction and repair. Right from MN-36 to 701 park everything is being put into better shpae for the preperation of the winters. let us hope that the work is completed before the season changes. It was unusually cold over the past weekend. it was overcast and rain...

I have achieved another milestone in the process of settling down here. After having bought and driven my car without a MN License for a while i completed the process of acquiring a new license today. I had already passed my written component of the test earlier but just today i took my driving test. It was the usual 15 minute affair and then the feedback up until when i felt i had failed the test and will have to come back another day. But surprisingly i passed and have been issued a MN driver's license. The driving test station was about 25 miles from the place where i live and i had no appointment for the test. Luckily there weren't many people to take the test and i was done by 11 am. Unlike Junaid and others who had to wait for more than four hours to take the test i had to wait for about an hour. The issuance of the license is important in bringing down my car insurance which at the moment is unbearably high. Once the insurance goes down i will be able to manage m...

I did my first continuity clinic today. My own clinic, my own patients, my own treatment and my own responsibility. This is good stuff. This is freedom unparalleled. I will get my own business card to give to my patients. Now how cool is that. On the other side I have learned a bit more about my Blackberry. I have finally configured it to receive my facebook alerts and more so I have finally found out how to post pictures directly from my phone to the facebook account. This is important as there are many beautiful places around here that will soon be covered in thick snow and cloudy overcast skies if not captured in the memory of my camera. The twin cities are a place worth exploring not only for their natural beauty and lakes but also for some of their culture and architecture, which seems really astounding. Once I get my own car, by the end of this week or the next week, I will set aside some time for exploring the place around. But from all the little journey making that ...