A Relaxing Sunday

Well, today Kenny and I did some yard work. Yes, you guessed it right...more battle against the weeds. This seems to be an never ending battle. You take down a ton on weeds and 2 weeks later they're back and it seems as if they've doubled. That's the worst part of living out here in the boonies. But we have to keep on top of that, since the CA Wildfire Code requires us to do so. This year however has been particularly awkward with the weeds. It has been one wettest years in a long time and it never gets really warm. It has been all spring long on the cool side...and that lets the weeds grow like crazy. Usually by the end of May it's hot enough that the big weeds die and therefore are no longer an issue. So the only thing that we can for at this moment is warm weather.

After lunch Kenny and I watched the last 6 episodes of 'Cougar Town'. While Kenny was working on some podcast notes I was chilllin' out in front of the TV.

Later that night Kenny went to a party for one of his friends who just recently moved down from the Bay Area to LA. That gave me time to enjoy a 'Friends' mini-marathon.

All in all a quite relaxing Sunday!!

Visiting Kenny's Dad

Around 11.30 Kenny and I headed out to Corona to visit Kenny's Dad. Traffic was really terrible and it took us over 2 hours to get there. While we were visiting with Kenny's family I want Mike to take a look at the dent in the bumper of my truck (Kenny's brother does body work). Unfortunately the dent can't be fixed and the bumper needs to be replaced.

We visited Kenny's Dad, who isn't doing so well. His face has swollen up way more and he isn't eating. He says he is fine, but Kenny and I both know that he is not. Kenny's Dad spent 1/2 hour with us before back upstairs to sleep....that's pretty much all he does these days.

We did have lunch with him and we almost had to force him to eat. Kenny, Mike, Lora and I told him that he has to eat, because he needs to keep up his strength.

After Kenny's Dad went back to sleep, I hung out inside the house and watched TV, while Kenny played around with Kenobi for about 1 hour. We left around 4 pm and got back home around 5.30. We did watch lasts episode of Doctor Who and really enjoyed it. It sucks that we have have to wait another week for part 2, because of the Memorial Day Weekend. We did catch up on the last 5 episodes of 'How I Met Your Mother'. I really enjoy that series and I'm definitely looking forward to season 7.

More Shipping Quotes

Today I got more shipping quotes...at least sorta.

First shipping quote was from Schumacher Cargo and was for $ 1630. That was roughly the same as the first estimate for Allied Van Lines.

The 3 additional shipping quotes I received after that were far not that informative.

First up was DHL. Letting me know that if I plan to ship the household items via Ocean Cargo I need to call their Cargo Forwarding Department for a quote. They know how what items I intend to ship, how much boxes I want to ship and the exact dimension of each box. With all this information it shouldn't be that difficult to give a prospective customer a ballpark estimate. Telling someone on the other hand to call the Freight Forwarding Department for a quite isn't much of a customer service.

Next up was Crown Relocation Services. Well they weren't much better either. They have the exact same information as DHL, but couldn't provide a quote either. Their email response pretty much stated that they need to do a pre-move survey in order to provide a shipping quote.

The last email response was from Guardian Cargo...and I didn't get a quote their either. They want me to complete a online inventory form before being able to give me a quote.

So I will call DHL and Crown Relocation Services tomorrow for a quote or to set up a pre-move survey and I will out the online inventory form of Guardian Cargo....and then I will wait what they come up with. Apparently getting a shipping quote is more work than deciding what stuff to relocate!!

More Packing & more Shipping Quotes

Today I was determined to get the sorting done. So I went out in the garage and sorted through the last box. By 2 pm I was finally done!! YEAH!! I'm very happy that the sorting part is over. The only thing that is still left is the small box with misc. stuff...and that doesn't really bother me.

Later in the afternoon I received several shipping quotes. 2 of those quotes were responses from my initial inquiry about a week ago. Those estimated came back with $ 2800 and $ 3200. Those estimates didn't really upset me, since they were from companies where the track record of customer satisfaction is questionable. The 3rd estimate was a little more bothersome. I was from the company that I had the consultation with yesterday. There the representative told me that he estimates a that the shipping costs will be around $1600. I just skimmed over the estimate and it's for about $ 2700. Have to look at that estimate in more detail to figure out where the difference comes from. On the other hand it's pretty much along the line that I was expecting. If I add the $ 2700 to the other relocation costs, that still puts me will within my relocation budget. But if you thought you might be getting the same service for 1 grand less, it's somewhat upsetting.

So I looked into alternatives. If I were to ship the 1000 lbs of household goods via USPS, UPS or Fedex that would cost me somewhere between $ 6500 and $ 6800. That's not really an option. DHL doesn't even let you calculate the shipping costs..it requires you to ask for a shipping quote. I did that and we'll see what the result will be. Next I tried to use the Fedex and UPS Freight option, but turns out that only commercial shippers can do that.

I guess I will have to figure out how much weight I actually plan to ship. Then I can figure out what it would cost me to ship it via an alternative carrier.

Guess the shipping story continues...good thing I started getting quotes 2 1/2 month in advance.

Shipping Quotes

Today I had an appointment with a representative of one of the shipping companies. Well, I still had to prep a couple of things before he was going to show up. I got done with that stuff about 1 hour before the guy even was supposed to show up. The guy was supposed to show up at 11... well, the clock turns 11.30 still no representative. Being 15 to 20 minutes late could be considered fashionable, but being more than 1/2 hour late...well, that's just being late. 5 or 10 minutes the guy finally shows up and tells me that he is sorry for being late, but Yahoo maps sent him down the wrong dirt road and that didn't surprise me a bit.

So he starts surveying all the personal stuff that I intend to relocate. I knew that he wasn't going to give me a written estimate right at the spot. He tells me that I should have the written estimate in couple of days. He could give me a ballpark estimate. It will cost me about $ 1600 to relocate my personal stuff. That estimate didn't really shock me at all, since I knew that supping stuff internationally is ridiculously expensive. If I add that estimate to the relocation expenses so far, then I'm still well within my relocation budget.

Later in the afternoon I called the second shipping company, since they never called me back. That girl took down the information (that I gave them already yesterday) and told me she would forward the information to their international shipping department and they would call me back either today or tomorrow. Well, we'll see if that actually happens. Considering that I already gave them the information, well that doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Still have to hear back from shipping company #3. Once I have have all the estimates I will check all details of them, to see what the differences are. Before making a final decision I will double check with USPS, UPS and Fedex what their international shipping rates are. But as far as I know they're more expensive than an international shipping company. I will keep you gous posted on that!!

Later that day I went back out in the garage to do some more sorting. I don't mind it, since there is light at the end of the tunnel...But I'm quite ready to be done with it, since it is starting to get old!!

All in all another quite productive day!

More Packing...

Well, today was pretty much all about sorting and packing. I went out into the garage fairly early in the day and starting to sort through stuff. Daisy was joining me. She spent parts of the time taking a sun bath, then relaxed in the shade or slept in the garage on the cool concrete floor. I went through tons of stuff. Most of it was paperwork and manuals. Some of that stuff definitely doesn't serve any purpose anymore. Either it's completely outdated or the stuff the manuals belong to doesn't even exist anymore. So lots of it just needed to be tossed. I did sort through a number of things that are definitely going to be relocated to Austria.

Around 1 pm I went inside to have lunch and it was getting a little 'toasty' in the garage. I put the stuff that I will be keeping next to the 'relocation box'...and that pile is definitely growing. But this size of this pile is still very reasonable.

Later in the afternoon I went out in the garage again to continue my sorting work. I made quite good progress and now I have just 1 more box to sort through. I'm very happy with the progress so far.

Shipping Quotes & more Packing

Today I was finally going to tackle the entire issue with getting shipping quotes for the move to Europe. I wasn't particularly looking forward to having to deal with that. But apparently there is no way around it. I had to check 10 companies...the rest of the international shipping companies had such a bad reputation, that they didn't even make the first cut. I checked their BBB rating and the number of unsolved complaints against them. The pretty much cut the field in half. Of the remaining 5 companies I checked what complaints are listed against them and what the overall customer experience is. Well 2 of those companies had a really bad reputation. Normally I wouldn't even bother and give them a call. But since I knew what service I wanted and what I need, I decided to hear what they have to say. I was obvious that they were reading a sales script. They couldn't answer specific questions and some of the answer leave a lot to be desired. It occurred to me that the only thing they were interested is up-sell certain services. So I scratched those 2 off the list. That leaves 3 companies. 1 emailed one of those companies, but have yet to receive an answer. With the second company I talked on the phone and they will be sending a representative to survey the stuff that will be shipped and give me a more detailed estimate about the costs. Company number three knows what service I require, the dimensions of and number of the boxes I intend to ship...but I haven't heard back from them so far.

After lunch I went out into the garage to sort through some of the boxes and I made quite good progress. I carried stuff inside to put into my 'personal relocation box'. Slowly that box is starting to fill up. After I was done in the garage I started with the DVD's and pulled all those DVD's that belong to me and that are being moved to Austria. Turns out that is quite an impressive number of DVD's. Now the

DVD shelf in the TV-Room is full of 'holes'...and it looks quite sad actually.

Once I was done with that I checked with my airline to see if Travelocity had forwarded my reservation to them, since I was unable to reserve a specific seat on the flight and had to do that directly with the airline. Turns out the airline has the reservation and the reserved an aisle seat pretty much in the rear of the plane and I didn't care too much about a window seat anyways. In case it should turn out that this flight is a repeat of 'Lost'...well then I'm definitely in right part of the plane! When I was checking the description of the seat I realized that every seat is equipped with a USB Port for PC and iPod. That way you can recharge your electronic devices and are not limited to the onboard entertainment during a 10 hour flight. I'm definitely very happy about that.

So all in all it was quite a very productive day!!

Visiting Kenny's Dad

Today Kenny and I went to visit Kenny's Dad. With my family visiting in April it has been almost 2 month since I saw Kenny's Dad last. We picked up chinese food from our favorite place and headed over to Kenny's Dad.

When I saw him he looked kind of like a bull frog...and it first it didn't look all that serious. But then he pulled down his shirt where you can see the tumors and my heart dropped. Apparently those 3 tumors weren't there 3 weeks ago and now they're huge and sticking out of his chest. What worries me most is the rate that cancer is progressing. What makes the situation even worse is that Kenny's Dad is being sent from doctor to doctor without anyone actually doing something productive. Those doctors need to do a biopsy and start the treatment. After that they can do all the test they want to do...and if the treatment needs adjustment you can do that down the road. Kenny's Dad said he's okay, but he looks like he's getting sick.
We hung out for a few hours and took him to the store to get some groceries. He is going in for his biopsy tomorrow and he is hoping they are going to remove the tumors. We will find out Wednesday the status of the cancer and if it's treatable or terminal.

Rapture & Packing

Well today there has been so much hype about the impending rapture. What is crazy is it's a very small religious group who started it but as unusual those who "yell" the loudest are heard the most so this rapture has been all over the news the past few days. According to this group the rapture was suppose to start at 6pm (timezone unknown). It would start with all the righteous being instantly taken to heaven and then the earthquakes would start and those left behind would suffer until October when the final apocalypse would happen.
Well everyone had a field day with this, so many jokes on twitter and facebook. No one was taking these people serious, well almost no one. There was a news report that someone tried to kill his pets before the rapture. He of course was one of the righteous and he didn't want his pets left on Earth to suffer so he took them to the vet and asked the vet to euthanize them. Of course the vet said no so this guy decided he would do it himself... luckily the vet called the police and they stopped the guy from doing it. But it did get me wondering how many other people did that, or killed themselves or family members. I still think that someone should sue that 'crazy' pastor at least for false advertisement. With the right judge you might even get him for breach of contract.

After Kenny had left for Christopher's birthday party I went out into the garage to start going through some boxes that I had pulled out some days ago. I was making quite good progress. One of the more surprising things was that I found an internal hard drive in one of my boxes. I don't have the slightest idea where it came from or what's on it, and I haven't owned a desktop computer, where it could have come from, in over 10 years. Luckily we do own a hard drive shell and it will be quite interesting to figure out what's the deal with the 'mystery' hard drive. Turns out that there is quite some stuff that no longer serves any purpose and can be tossed. I couldn't toss that stuff, since the trash dumpster was completely full. So I just put the stuff that can be tossed into one of the empty boxes and will throw it out once the dumpster is empty again. I figured I might as well use the box, that Daisy's Travel Crate came in, to put my personal stuff in that will be relocated. For now that doesn't include small appliances and kitchen stuff. But that box will give me an better indication how much stuff needs to be shipped. I intend to get next week several more detailed quotes to have the stuff shipped to Europe. Not sure yet if I can get that quote over the phone or if an representative of the shipping company has to 'inspect' the stuff in order to get a detailed shipping quote. Will keep you guys posted on that.

Cell Phones & other Fun...

Today I was dealing with certain things that have to do with....you guessed it right... the upcoming relocation. First thing in the agenda was the entire phone thingy. If I want to use my current BlackBerry in Austria I have AT&T to unlock it first to be able to use it. On top of that I have then to choose a service provider and a plan. So I went through the plans of all major austrian cell phone service providers. From most of them I really didn't like what they had to offer if you don't want to enter into a 24-month contract. In addition to that I need a cell phone that can actually work as a limited wifi hotspot. The BlackBerry just doesn't do that to my satisfaction. The Nexus S on the other hand is capable of doing that. I figured that I have here an opportunity to get rid of 2 things that have been really annoying. I can get a new & unlocked cell phone and choose a prepaid plan with a decent data plan...that way I end up with a new cell phone and won't get stuck in a 24-month contract again. I rather pay for what I actually use. I found a prepaid plan with the right 'data package' and that's the one I will be finally going with. Now I just have my friend Sandra go an activate the thing 3 days before I land or I won't behaving a cell phone service...and we can't have that. I also did the math and although buying the phone now will cost me several hundred bucks...in the long run it's about 1/2 of what I would have to pay with a 24-month contract.

Next thing on the agenda was the crate pad. Still haven't found the right crate pad for Daisy's Travel Crate. I want it to be something that has to be absorbent but in a way, that the moisture get's trapped on the inside without Daisy lying on a wet pad. I finally found that with a pad called DryFur. The only downside is that the pad size is a little smaller than the inside on the Travel Crate. So I will have to talk to my pet-relocation agent if that is fine.

Finally I wanted to check something about doggy stuff in Austria. Mostly about food brands and supplements. I'm sure I can find the supplements Daisy is currently taking, but I rather check that in advance. If I can't find them I can always mail them to my parents in advance. Well, there was a slight problem with that task. Using english search terms on websites that are in German doesn't yield many results...and apparently my German search terms weren't the right one to find what I wanted to find. So I emailed my friend Sandra if she new of any URL's. That seemed the way easier thing to do. I got an answer back from her but didn't get around to checking them out.

Doctor's Appointment & Lunch with Lydia

Today I had an doctors appointment in Van Nuys. So I got up at 8 and that gave me about 1 hour to get ready. It was pretty much enough time and I at 9 am. Fortunately traffic was very light at least till the 405. There traffic started to back up just as I was getting ready to get off at Victory Blvd. But it wasn't too bad. I got to AHF with about 5 minutes to spare.
First up was the weight and blood pressure check. The weight wasn't really a surprise at all. For some reason I can't get below 195 lbs. Have been stuck there for quite some time now. My blood pressure on the other hand was a pleasant surprise. Usually my blood pressure is 140 / 90...this time it was 134 / 78. I very happy about that.
Next was the appointment with my doctor. This was the annual physical, so there was no lab-work to discuss. The entire physical including the prostate exam went off without a hitch and there is really nothing that requires attention. I'm quite happy about that. After that I did have lab-work drawn and the results will be ready in about 3 weeks. If something out of the ordinary were to happen AHF will be calling me. If I want to know the results I can always call the nurse for the results.
I was done with my doctors appointment at about 11 am and had about 1 hour to kill. I decided to stop at the Van Nuys / Sherman Oaks War Memorial Park and have coffee and listen to some music on my iPod. At about 11.40 I left and drove over to Studio City, since I was meeting Lydia, who is visiting from Switzerland, for dinner. I got to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) with about 10 minutes to spare. Lydia showed up at noon and we didn't have any problems finding a table. I was having a Chipotle Chicken Pizza, while Lydia chose a Vegetarian Pizza. Our lunch was delicious. We had a ton of fun hanging out and chatting about many different topics. It has been quite a while since Lydia visited LA the last time. If all goes according to plan I will be seeing Lydia again in July, when she will be attending ComicCon.
A little before 2 pm we said our Good Bye's. On the way back I had very little traffic and made it back home a little before 3 pm.

Plane Ticket & Yard Work

This morning I checked the prices for plane tickets again. In the end I had 2 options: either to go with Expedia or with Travelocity. The price was exactly the same. I was leaning a more towards Travelocity. I asked Kenny for his opinion and he told me, that he would go with Travelocity. So I booked my ticket. I will be flying out of LAX via London to Vienna (Austria) on August 13th and it will me cost $ 925.
I went trough the booking process, but hit a snag when it comes to the seat selection...guess I will have to call the airline directly for that. I would have called them in a couple of days anyway, just to make sure that the reservation went off without any problems. When it came to processing the payment I hit the next snag. For some reason the booking site told me, that the credit card I entered was not valid. Since I never got to the payment authorization page, I figured I just type in my credit card again. This time it went off without a any issues. A couple of minutes later I got an email confirming my reservation and with the e-ticket number. I still will be on the lookout that they only charge the credit card once.
Later I went outside to do some yard work. There are still some left over weeds from last year behind the garage. Today I was going to deal with them. I checked if the big trash dumpster was still empty. Then I compressed the old brittle weeds into the wheel barrel and drove them over to the dumpster, threw them in and compressed them at the same time. After the 3rd wheel barrel there was only very little weeds in the Bagster left. I was afraid that the wind was going to blow the thing away. So I emptied the Bagster...was about 1/2 wheel barrel. That still fit easily into the dumpster and I still left enough room for regular household trash. Since Daisy doesn't use the dog pen anyways, I figured that's a great place to store the Bagster for now, until it has been dried out and I can figure out where to best store the Bagster.
Next I turned my attention to the dried grass in the driveway. I figured that that dry grass is on the one hand a fire hazard and that the fire marshal might not particularly happy about it. So I grabbed the hand weed whacker and started to cut down the dry grass. By the time I was done with the driveway the battery pack was pretty much dead...and the for some reason we forgot to charge the second battery pack. That also meant the end of today's 'weed battle'. Over all I was quite happy with the progress. That what's now left is regular 'weed management' and I will try to keep on top of that.

A relaxing Weekend

This weekend was fairly relaxing. Kenny was Saturday and Sunday on the set of 'The Guild'. That gave me time to experiment with several recipes. Most of them turned out quite decent. I spent most of the time presorting things, that eventually are going to be boxed up. While I was doing that, I also realized that there is quite some stuff that's most likely not going to be shipped to Europe, since it doesn't serve any purpose anymore. I just will have to decide what can be given to good will and what needs to be completely tossed. That's to positive part of a relocation...it forces you to reevaluate your stuff, since shipping stuff to Europe is expensive and eventually I will be downsizing from 2000 sqf house to a about 600 to 700 sqf.
When I was taking breaks I was watching several episodes of 'Golden Girls'. Of course I was checking on flights to Austria as well. That's not that easy as it might sound. It's currently not so much a question of the price, than it is a question of with which 'Booking Site' do I want to do business with. There's one thing that can be said with absolute certainty: All Travel Sites have a terrible rap!! I finally cut it down to 4 Sites: Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline. The rest of the Travel Sites has just a rap beyond believe. I still haven't made a final decision yet, but hope to do that by the beginning of next week!!
After taking a little break and relaxing with several episodes of 'Golden Girls', I had to deal with the entire issue of the second Backup Drive. First the media between the iMac and the Backup Drive needs to be consolidated. Once that is done I have to consolidate the media that already exists on the Backup Drive itself. Turns out there are a ton of redundant versions on that Backup Drive. Not only redundant versions of media but also of project, sequence, work and render files. Since all those projects are done only the final versions are needed and I can get rid of all the previous versions. Now I wish I would have done that earlier, but it never was that important to me and so it always got pushed back. Now is the perfect time to do just that.
Once the Backup Drive is completely consolidated I can clone the Backup Drive and send it in a separate package to Europe. That's a pure security precaution, but in case something were to happen to the first Backup Drive it's well worth the effort!!

Travel Crate

I knew that Daisy's new Travel Crate was supposed to be delivered today. That's why I wasvery surprised seeing the Fedex truck deliver something up the road and not stopping at our house as well. But I figured they have all day long to do so and I had to get started with yard work anyway. It was about 5 pm when the Fedex truck stopped at our house and delivered the new Travel Crate. Boy, that box was way heavier than I expected it to be. It weighs in at 33 lbs!!
As soon as I brought it into the house Daisy had to inspect it. I took a couple of pix and some video while unpacking the crate. As soon as Daisy saw that it was a crate she chose to stay in the TV-Room, as that crate was a little too menacing for her taste. I checked if I had all parts to assemble the entire thing...and that proved to be the case. Next I checked the dimensions and they are the right ones. Now Daisy has a IATA approved travel crate.
I didn't assemble the crate as I want to do crate training with her in slow steps, since Daisy has previous experience with crates and they are not all that pleasant. So I took it pretty much easy and let her investigate the bottom half of the crate by herself. She did go into the bottom half of the crate at least partially. I figured that she needs more of an incentive to go completely into the crate. So I chose Beggin Strips for that...and it worked like a charm. She goes into the crate, eats her piece of Begin Strips and comes back out again. I tried that even with the top half on and it works equally well. So starting the crate training about 3 month in advance and going ahead with small steps will be doing the trick. I also could see that the crate size is just perfect, since she can stand up in the crate and still see out the front. She is able to turn around in the crate and lay down with her front legs extended.
My biggest surprise was, when Daisy laid down in the crate after we were done with the training session for today. That's a huge step forward. OK, she still had her paws outside on the floor and she stayed in the crate for about 5 minutes...but it's still way more than I expected at this stage.

Yard Work

Today was pretty much all about yard work. I went outside fairly early in the day and had planned on tackling the east facing slope above the house. By the time I started I wasn't quite sure if I was going to finish the entire slope or if it will take several days. The weather wasn't optimal for yard work, since it was sunny and the temps were in the upper 70's, but at least at least there was a steady breeze going.
I really didn't want Daisy anywhere near I where I was working, since the big weed whacker is throwing dirt, debris and rocks around. But she was looking so sad at me when I was getting ready that I did take here outside with me. Knowing my cowdog I knew that she wasn't going to stay far away from me and might get hurt. So I tethered her with a shorter leash to on of the trees. That way she still could observe what was going on, while at the same time she was able to hang out in the shade without being in danger of getting hit by rocks and debris.
I was making really good progress. After 1 hour I had knocked down about half of the weeds on the east facing slope. By that time I was hot, sweaty, out of wire string and out of gas. So I figured that would be quite a good time to take a break. So I took Daisy and we went back inside and took a break of a little over 1 hour. After the break Daisy and I went back out again. I tethered her again to the tree, put a new wire string in and refueled the weed whacker. This time I had to tackle the really steep part of the slope and that is not too much fun. But for the most part it worked out just fine. A couple of times the weed whacker nearly tilted over and that's never a good thing. A little over 1 hour later I was out of wire string again and I had a blister on my thumb...not entirely sure how that happened. I chose not to put a new wire string in, since there was only here and there some patches of dry grass left and I can do that easily with the hand weed whacker.
All in all a quite productive day!!

Relocation Preparation

Originally I had planned to do yard work today. But working with the big weed whacker means that rocks and debris are being thrown around and that might damage or destroy my sun glasses. But I did remember that I still should have somewhere an old sun glasses. So I went out to the garage to look for them. While I was going through boxes it occurred to me that I have to check all boxes for the upcoming move anyway. So I might as well pull out all the boxes that I need to go through and move them over into the small garage aka our work out room. I worked very methodical from left to right and back to front.

Boy that are were a ton of boxes to check. Daisy figured out very quickly that she can stay in the small garage where the concrete floor is still cool. I must have spent about 3 hours in the garage. By the time I was done I had pulled a total of 2 large and 5 medium sized boxes. That's all the stuff of the past 8 years that I found worth keeping. Some of that stuff can be either tossed or given to good will, and that will further decrease the number of boxes that need to be shipped. Apparently most of the memories I keep are in electronic form. That's why I will be making a second backup of my hard drive and send it separate. Just a precaution if something were to get lost.

I was quite happy with the progress I made today. And I never did find my old sun glasses, remembered halfway through that particular 'adventure' that I had lost those sun glasses in Magic Mountain.

Pet-Relocation Update

A couple of days ago I emailed my pet-relocation agent several questions, since I couldn't get a hold of him on the phone. Usually he responds within 24 hours. But this time it was more than 3 days. I didn't worry too much about that, since the relocation isn't happening for another 3 month and because there was a weekend in between. Today I got some good news:

• Daisy's travel date of August 17th is OK. They still can't give me the confirmation for that yet, but her spot has been reserved.
• The authorities at Vienna International Airport have confirmed that there won't ben any problem with Daisy's 9-digit MicroChip. Therefore there won't be any need to re-chip and re-vaccinate her.
• Currently they're trying to have Daisy travel on a Non-Commercial EU-Health Certificate. That would mean that Daisy has only to see the VET once, thus eliminating the need for a VET visit 24 hours before departure.
• I also got more info about which crate pad to choose. Has to be absorbent, but shouldn't be too thick either.

Attack of the Nitwit Bureaucrats...

Today I had my appointment with the Austrian Consulate General. So I got up at 8 am and that gave me about 1 hour time to get ready. I left our house around 9 am. On the 14 and I-5 there was very little traffic. This was equally true on the I-405...at least in the beginning. As soon as I hit Roscoe it was stop and go. Maybe I should rephrase that...it as more stop than go. Under normal circumstances I can make it from Roscoe to Sepulveda Pass in under 8 minutes. This time it took me about 35 minutes or so. After the Sepulveda Pass it started to pick up. I got off at Whilshire Blvd. and found the building of the Consulate General without any problems. I chose to park in the parking structure and just pay the fee, since I was already running about 30 min. behind. I went into the Consulate and to my surprise I was the only customer. Not having to wait in line is quite a positive experience. But that's as far as the positive experience went.

I hand over the paperwork and my documents to one of the Consulate employees. She goes to the paperwork and tells me that she can't issue me a new passport, since the my visa is out of state. So I ask here what her solution to the situation is. She tells me that the only thing she can do is to issue an emergency passport. So I tell her to go ahead and do so. She asks me for my plane ticket. I tell her that I haven't bought the plane ticket yet, since I have planned to relocate in Mid-August. The Consulate employee tells met that she can only issue the emergency passport about 2 weeks before the planned departure, and that I have to send her the ticket or e-ticket about 2 weeks before departure. She then will issues the emergency passport and return passport and ticket to me via Certified Prepaid Mail. I thank her for the information and walk out of the Consulate. I really had to control myself otherwise I would have given her a piece of my mind. That wouldn't have been the smartest idea, since the last thing you want to do is to piss off a Consulate employee.

At that point I truly felt like a figure in a Kafka play!! I have talked to both Consulate employees a couple of month ago and explained the situation in all details. I asked both of them independently if I need to apply for a completely new passport, a limited passport or and emergency passport. Both of them gave me the same information: I need to apply for a completely new passport. Now getting the information, that I have to apply for a emergency passport I just can't shake off the feeling as if I have been talking to a couple of nitwits! So much for the accuracy of information from those Consulate employees.

Once I got home I was frustrated and really pissed off. The only reaction I got from Kenny when I told him about my day was, that I'm cutting it pretty close. That wasn't much help either. If it were up to me I would have issue the Consulate the paperwork at least 1 month in advance...but that's just not an option.

Once Kenny had left to spend time on the set of the 'Guild' I went outside to deal with some of the left over weeds from last year, that are still piled up in a Bagster bag behind the garage. I compressed those completely dry and brittle weeds into the wheel barrel and moved them into the dumpster. Doing that kind of work is quite a good way of getting rid of your frustration. I managed to put 4 wheel barrels of weeds into the dumpster and still leaving enough room for regular household trash. All in all I was happy with the progress and I managed to cut the weed pile into half.

I had just been back inside for about 15 minutes or so when I got a phone call from my pet-relocation company with some good news. I will be talking more about that in the next Blog Post: Pet Relocation Update.

After that phone call I thought about the upcoming move and figured that I probably can pack up about 80% of my stuff now and that way it is ready to go. That will give me a better idea of how many boxes I have to ship via an international moving company and will make it way easier to get an fairly accurate estimate. I probably can have that done within the next 2 weeks and that would let me enjoy the rest of the time, that I've left in the States, even more.

Running Errands

I spent a lot of time today running errands. First thing on the agenda was the issue with the Return-Envelope for the passport. The website of the Embassy only states that postage has to be paid, is otherwise quite vague on the subject. From previous experience I knew that trying to get a hold of someone on the phone on the Consulate General in LA was pretty pointless, your best bet is to send them an email. So I just called the Embassy in Washington DC. I got a hold on someone right away and found out that the Return-Envelope has to be USPS Certified Prepaid Envelope.

Next on the agenda were the 2 passport pictures. I knew that there are several place that do passport pictures in a rather crappy part of Van Nuys and I wasn't particularly thrilled having to drive all the way out there for just those 2 pictures. So I did a Google search. Turns out that the local CVS, that we go to all the time, does passport photos.

So I headed out to Santa Clarita and picked up the Certified Prepaid Envelope at the local USPS office. My next stop was the local CVS store. They took the picture and 5 minutes later I 2 new pix for my passport. After that I went to the local Mobil gas station to fill up my truck, since I really didn't want to have to do that tomorrow morning.

Once I got back home I had some left overs for lunch and then started to deal with all the paperwork. Fulling out all those forms proved to be a very negative experience. I had ti fill the 'main passport' form out 3 times... certainly makes you question your own ability to fill out a friggin' from. The second form I had only to fill out twice. Once I was done with both forms I triple checked them and they were all filled out right. Then I triple checked with the 'Passport To-Do-List' that I did indeed have everything I needed.

That entire thing was giving me an award winning case of stomach ache. It's not so much having to deal with those forms, but having to deal with government bureaucrats and they can be a royal pain in the ass!!

A Relaxing Sunday

Today I had quite relaxing Sunday. Kenny was on the set of the 'Guild' all day long. First I experimented a little with on of my salad recipes. I do like eating salad, but the same recipes over and over again...well that gets boring quickly. Since I had enough time on my hand I first prepared roasted potatoes and roasted a steak and cut it into more manageable pieces. Then I made the salad the usual way, added steak and roasted potatoes...and it turned out delicious!! Yes the steak could have been a little more on the pinkish side, but that might have been partially due to the fact, that this steak has been in the freezer for quite some time. That recipe is definitely a keeper!!

After that I relaxed with couple of episodes of 'Golden Girls'. Next up was some housework that I haven't gotten around to lately. After that I checked on all the forms and the paperwork that I need to fill out prior to having my appointment with the Austrian Consulate General on Tuesday. Of course there have to be several forms and they certainly can't make it easy for you. You've gotta love government bureaucrats and their obsession with paperwork. I tried to print those forms out, but for some reason the printer on Kenny's computer simple refused to do anything. At that time it didn't even occur to me that I could have saved the files as pdf's, sent them to Kenny's computer and printed them that way. But since there is more than enough time till the appointment it really didn't worry me too much.

Then I relaxed a little with several more episodes of 'Golden Girls'. While I was watching TV Kenny texted me not to wait with dinner for him, since he will be getting home rather late. So I went ahead and experimented with another of my recipes. I made Curry Rice and roasted Green Beans and Lima Beans...but I experimented a little with the seasoning. Well if you like your food a little on the spicy side, than that's definitely the recipe for you!! That recipe is a keeper as well, since I like my food to be a little on the spice side.

That pretty much concluded my very relaxing sunday.

Happy Mother's Day

Shortly after midnight our time I called my Mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day!!

Well, midnight our time makes it about 9 am in Austria. I talked with her for about 1/2 hour or so and for most part she is doing fine. Still has some issues with her back and has already had her first doctors appointment. Pretty soon she will be having x-ray's and MRI's of that back taken to figure out what's causing her to be in pain. Leave it to the 2 physicians in the family (my dad and my sis) to suspect the worst. I always see things way more positive: As long is I don't know for certain that the worst case scenario has happened, I always hope for the best and that it is just something that will be a fairly easy fix.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Relocation Time Table...

Well, I spent quite some time this afternoon figuring out the detailed Time Table for the relocation. I had pretty much figured out the raw draft, but certain details still needed to be worked out.

If the worst case scenario should happen and Daisy needs a new MicroChip, well there is still more than enough time left to do so. Nothing up the the shipment of the household items would worry me, when it comes to the time table. After that things are going to get very, very hectic... and there is nothing I can do about that.

Fact is that EU Health Certificate, International Health Certificate and USDA Endorsement have to be issued max. 10 days before departure. The question is now if that are 10 days total or 10 workdays. If we're talking about 10 workdays, then I can have my regular VET fill out the paperwork and send it to USDA for endorsement. That way it wouldn't be that super hectic. If we are talking about a total of 10 days total, well then things are a little more crazy. That means I have to talk to my VET to hand over the paperwork to another VET, since he only works Thursday to Sunday. I would have to deal with the paperwork and get the USDA approval within 1 week. That's quite hectic, but doable... Either way Kenny would have to take Daisy on August 16th for her final VET exam.

So I am still will be flying back to Austria most likely on the August 13th or 14th. That still gives me about 3 to 4 days to push Daisy's move back in case something unforeseeable happens. I would have liked to have about 5 to 7 days, but apparently that's not really an option. That are going to be 2 quite stressful weeks, but I'm confident I can pull it off!!

More Relocation Prep-Work

Today I had to do more Relocation Prep-Work. I started off with the stuff that involves Daisy. Tried to get a hold of the relocation specialist, but only could get his voice mail. So I left him a message to call my cell. I know right now is a very busy time for those guys, so I decided to send him in email as well detailing a couple of things that haven't been entirely finalized. It has mostly to do that I have now finalized Daisy's Travel Date: she will be leaving on August 17th. Still have to work out the details on when exactly she will be picked up on that day. But there are still 2 additional items that I need to to deal with:

I need to figure out if the 9-digit MicroChip is sufficient or if Daisy needs a new MicroChip. Should the second case scenario arise, Daisy needs to be 're-chiped' and since there are a little over 3 month time to do so...that's not of immediate concern. The more urgent matter is the 'TimeTable' of what things (regarding the health certificates and paper work) have to be done by what deadline. Im not concerned about the paper work that has to be compiled form now till the travel date. I'm way more concerned with the paper work that can only be issued within the last 2 weeks before the travel date. That will require me to draw up a kind of 'battle plan' regarding that time table.

Next on the agenda was to order Daisy's IATA approves Transport Crate. That should have been a straight forward task, since I had already done the entire research on that subject and re-confirmed with the pet relocation agent that I had chosen the right crate. Well, nothing is as it appears to be. I was ready to order when I see what they want from me for the metal hardware for the crate...twice the amount that it is actually worth. That would have left a sour taste, but wouldn't be enough to change crate providers. The next thing I saw was what they want from me in shipping costs. I almost fell off my office chair!! They wanted to have almost $ 150 for the delivery of $ 150 in merchandise. That I was really unhappy about that was an understatement!! So I spent the next 1 1/2 hours looking for a different provider for that travel crate or one that is similar in size and IATA approved. Talking to the associate of the bigger pet store chains is really an ordeal. Some of them don't really know what they're talking about...then there are others who take forever to look up the information...and of course than are those, where you think you're talking to a nitwit.

While all that was going on I was googling the crate and checked out several different providers. I finally found a company that had the crate I wanted at a reasonable price. Since the total amount of the order exceeded $ 100 they actual Fedex Ground Shipping will only cost me about 5 bucks!! The total amount of the order is now $ 124 and that's quite a bargain compared to the 300 bucks of the other provider! So I placed the order and by doing so I can at least mark the crate off my To-Do-List! I still have to buy the metal hard ware and the better crate pad, but that doesn't have to be right away and shouldn't cost me an arm and a leg in shipping costs.

I had hoped that by 2 pm I would already be working on the details of the relocation timeline... not quite sure if I will get that done today.

Work around the House

Today I needed to get some work around the house done. I started with transporting several wheel barrels full of weeds over to the big trash dumpster. One of our neighbors had thrown in an entire table without breaking it up. Not sure which one it was, but that has to be one of the dumbest things to do. But with some compressing the weeds by hand into the dumpster I still managed to get quite a lot into. I did stop in time to leave enough room for regular household trash. While I was busy with the weeds, Kenny had put our living room back together. We had to put quite a number of things away in order to kinda make it 'child proof' for my little nephew. Later Kenny joined me outside at the 'weed game' to battle some weeds at the garage that just keep on growing...seems just like yesterday, that I had them all cut down. All that yard work with temps in the mid 80's with not even a hint of a breeze is not much fun!!

After a little break we headed out to Santa Clarita and head lunch at El Pollo. Later we went grocery shopping, as we were running out of a lot of things. Around 3 pm we were back at the house and waited for the repair shop to call. They finally called at 5.30 that Kenny's Jeep was ready. Luckily we didn't have to drive to West LA during rush hour, since the repair shop is connected to a gas station and therefore you can pick up your car 24 hours. Kenny had to do some stuff to do on the computer and after that we had a quick dinner. Next we headed back out to West LA to pick up the car. The total repair cost is about 900 bucks. By the time we got back home it was almost 10.30 pm again.

A quite interesting Day...

Today has certainly been quite an interesting one. From the time I got up till I started to prep dinner I've horny like hell. Haven't felt that way in quite a long time. Brought back some memories when I was in my 20's. Being horny all day, basically thinking with your dick and nothing else but sex is on your mind... quite distracting actually.

I had just finished thawing the chicken breasts for todays dinner, when I get a text message from Kenny that he just blew the radiator of his Jeep and has to call AAA. So I decided to hold off on dinner. Shortly after that I get a phone call from him that it will be at least 30 min. until the towing truck arrives. So I decided to go ahead with dinner. On the one side chicken is cooked quite quickly and on the other side I then just have to make rice and we have a complete dinner , regardless of when we get back. I made some Paprika style chicken. I just finished cooking the chicken and finishing up the sauce for the chicken, when I get a phone call from Kenny to head out to West LA to pick him up at a local repair shop. So I head out to pick him up...I wasn't particularly a happy camper since I don't enjoy driving around in West LA and all the construction work on the on- and off-ramps of the 405 makes things even worse.

The GPS estimated that it would roughly take me about 45 min. to get there and I made it to the repair place in 47 minutes. I pick up Kenny and we head back...by the time we got back home it was almost 10.30 pm. I warm up the chicken, while Kenny prepares the rice in the microwave and about 15 minutes later we have a warm and quite yummy dinner. Tomorrow we will find out how much the car repair is going to cost.

Family Travel

Once I got home, I started my computer, went to Flight Tracker and waited for the plane to take off. They took off at 7.57 am...pretty much on time. I figured I might as well get some shut eye and I went back to bed. Got a little over 1 hour sleep and by the time I got back up again and checked Flight Tracker and my family was over Missouri, about half way to Washington DC.

By noon they had landed in DC, where they'll be having a layover of about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I called my Dad via Skype to let him know that my family had made it to Washington DC, but my friend Sandra had already given him that info.

When I opened up Fight Tracker with the Austrian Airlines flight, that my family will be taking back to Austria, it turned out, that the inbound flight was 23 minutes delayed. Apparently that didn't matter too much as they took off from DC about 4 minutes delayed, and I wouldn't call that much of a delay at all!! I called Dad to let him know that my family is en route to Austria and that they're scheduled to arrive on Monday at 8.11 am. We'll have to see and wait if that estimate stays that way.

Occasionally I checked back on Flight Tracker how my families flight was progressing. By 11.03 pm (PST) they landed in Vienna, about 2 minutes before they were scheduled to.

Dropping off Family

Today my family is flying back to Austria via Washington DC. They decided to get up at 5.30 am, but for me that would be too late...need my 'alone time' in the morning to wake up. I set the alarm for 4.10 am, but was already awake a 4 am. I figured I might as well get up 10 minutes early. Considering that I had only slept for about 2 hours I was surprisingly awake. I started to make coffee and enjoyed my 30 minutes of solitude. At 4.30 am the rest of my family got up and started to get ready. Both Leonhard and Daniel were anything but awake at that time. Daisy was really confused and absolutely wasn't sure what to make of the entire thing. We were supposed to leave by 4.50, but at that time we just had started putting the luggage in Kenny's Jeep. Shortly thereafter we started to put everyone in the cars. Bernd was driving with Kenny and the rest of my family was driving with me in my Dodge Ram. We left by 5 am, so we were just running about 10 minutes late. There was literally no traffic on the freeways and we made it to LAX in about 1 hour. We had decided to do just a 'drop off', meaning that Kenny and I were dropping them off and could say good by but had to leave right away. Of course while driving to the Terminal Kenny and I got separated and when Kenny called my cell I was too busy to deal with cars cutting left and right in front of me, so I handed the phone to my Sis and she told me that Terminal 7 was the final destination. A few minutes after that I saw Kenny's Jeep parked on the side, but couldn't stop there, so I went ahead a little further. My family got out of the car and I told them to go ahead and meet up with Bernd. There they said their good byes to Kenny and then they headed back towards me. We hugged and said our good byes and then I had to leave. That was also the first time that Leonhard figured out that I will be moving back to Austria in a few month, until now he apparently had no clue about that.

Kenny and I left, headed toward the 405 and headed north. We made very good progress and were home by 7.45 am.