Trials and Tribs

After a warm (barely) - but refreshing shower this morning I am writing this as we wait to hear from Fed Ex customer advocates who are supposed to let us know "fer shur" when the x-rays will arrive in Canberra. After incurring change fees to move our flight reservations from Wednesday to APRIL FOOLS DAY (is this tempting fate just a little too much?), I am concerned that we might be putting a bit TOO much trust in Fed Ex to come through for us. Hey, life on the edge!

We are also waiting to hear from our pet transporter consultant to hear how Sammy and Karma are doing. Poor things - they flew to LAX after all day in their crates flying from Albuquerque through Houston and on to LAX. They were met by Pet Taxi staff who walked and played with them before putting them back in their crates for the very long haul to Sydney...

...to be continued. (must meet the container guy at the house)

Judi

Where we are...

At the Holiday Inn Express in Socorro. We'll stay here until Friday (at least) and then travel to Sydney via LAX.

The Xrays may get to Canberra on Friday which will enable us to fly Friday night.

In other news, the container that was supposed to be loaded with our worldly belongings yesterday didn't turn up. This morning we heard that it was instead in Phoenix. It will purportedly be here tomorrow morning to be loaded.

We did get the dogs, Sammy and Karma, off to Australia today. That went ok, though we were missing one piece of paperwork that the vet was able to fax to the carriers.

I think about 30% of the things we have to do are going fine.

Tim

Honglin's card

Honglin gave me this truly great going away card, translated from a well known set of Chinese couplets.



Tim

Q. What's the difference between Australia and Austria?

A. Judi's Xrays are in Austria (Vienna):



Words fail me.

Tim

Vitaly and Vitaly

The house is being packed by two Russian-Israeli guys, both called Vitaly, from Las Vegas, NM. Definitely the way to do it. They are professionals - very impressive. Everything is put into neat boxes and sealed up carefully. For example, the entire couch is encased in saran wrap. I'm waiting with considerable interest to see what they do with the entertainment center which is (a) big and (b) an awkward shape. Since they argue in Russian, I can't tell what the discussion is but I can see the end result.

Tomorrow the container comes and Vitaly and Vitaly will load it with the prepacked boxes. Then we have Tuesday to deliver the dogs to the airport and clean the house. Wednesday we fly out from Albuquerque to Los Angeles and thence onwards to Sydney.

Judi's XRays are in transit. The route so far is Albuquerque - Memphis - Paris - Frankfurt. You'd think it would be easier to go across the Pacific but I guess it would be in danger of getting there ahead of schedule :(

We're staying at the Socorro Holiday Inn Express for the next three nights. It seems quite nice despite the view of McDonalds parking lot. In addition, there is wireless internet in the rooms - a necessity for both Judi and me. I'm also hoping to see some soccer. I missed the England - Northern Ireland game mid week which was evidently very good.

That's it for now. More tomorrow, perhaps.

Tim

Update: The Xrays were sent to Austria not Australia. Hence the strange route. Bloody FedEx.

What's new?

Well, the following:

• No one at the Australian Immigration Service can find Judi's Xray so we sent off another copy via Fedex. Fedex (when it Absolutely, Positively has to get there, perhaps) thinks it will get there by 5pm on Wednesday, Australian time. We get on the plane to Sydney about 10pm on Wednesday, Pacific time (which is about 5pm Thursday, if I've done my sums right). We've been told that the Xray is the only holdup for the Visas so we should be ok.If not we'll just stay in LA for a day or so. Cross your digits for us.
  
• The dogs, Sammy and Karma, fly out on Tuesday for a relaxing trip, followed by 30 restful but fulfilling days at Club Eastern Creek Quarantine Station. Mica will go to Tom and Robyn's house this weekend.
  
• We had a yard sale today and will have another tomorrow. Lots of stuff went today but we have odds and ends to go tomorrow.
• Zoe is here on spring break. We'll go out for her birthday dinner tonight to El Sombrero - another chance to load up on green chile.

Tim

Photos from my going away party

Joe McMullin took this great photo of my old friend Rick Perley presenting me with the traditional NRAO picture.





Tim

I think we really are moving!

I think it finally hit me. We are actually moving to Australia. Wow. What a great adventure. It would be nice if I had my VISA of course... Robyn said that I could come live with them. I might have to!

It's interesting how all of a sudden there are one million details to take care of. I finally got my car back from the body shop (it was in for hail damage). It only took them 2 months!!!! I kept telling them "But I need to sell it before we go!" Obviously, detail #1 is selling the Honda Element. There's also the final arrangements for shipping Karma and Sammy - and of course trying to get them used to the crates - yeah, right - like that's going to happen. Then there's the kid's car insurance, our cell phone accounts, the kid's health insurance.... I'm also trying to get an electrician to come fix a couple of problems in the house - but do you think a Socorro electrician might even call back? Hell no! Of course, we're still on the waiting list to have some broken windows replaced - The hail storm certainly provided plenty of business to anyone dealing with glass or roofing.

Friends at NRAO are snapping up almost everything that we're trying to sell. It's great - we don't really even have to try. I'm sure there will still be a big shipment heading for the thrift store before we leave.

Yesterday afternoon I attended Tim's NRAO going away "party." Rick Perley, Brian Glendenning and Joe McMullin all had great things to say about Tim's work at NRAO. I think it was a validating experience for the big guy, and I'm glad he got a chance to hear it. It meant a lot. (Although I may never drink tea again after the "kids underwear in the kettle" story!! Yuck!)

Tim and I are still struggling with the Atkins diet and trying to lose some weight. After 2 1/2 months I might have lost - 2 lbs? Some people have told me that stress inhibits a person's ability to lose weight. We definitely have stress, soooooooo....

Hugs to all of our readers, Judi

Update

Well, we sold the house last week. At least we've agreed to the price and signed the contract. Closing will be some time in April. It's going to a very nice couple who seem to appreciate it a lot, which is nice. We really enjoyed living here.

We're still waiting on the visa. Getting kind of nervous now, I must say. I'm not sure what we'll do if the visa gets turned down for some reason. There's always Walmart, I guess.

We're now selling the TV and TiVo. I hope these don't go too quickly. I want to watch some more soccer before I leave.

The going away parties have started. Last Friday I went to beer/pizza with the e2e guys from work. Lots of fun, and Honglin gave me a great stamp with my name in Chinese (Timothy translates to Heaven's Eye). Tomorrow I have the traditional cake and punch extravaganza at NRAO.

My office is mainly packed up. I mostly just have to take the boxes back home to be loaded into our container. I got rid of a lot of old files - mostly management related.

That's about it for now.

Tim