The Angeleno Girl becomes a Viennese Girl

Today it was really time that Daisy was going to get her Austrian Dog License. You have a period of 2 weeks in which you're supposed to register your dog. That period was almost over. I had checked on those regulations even before I started the entire relocation process. The rules state that the dog has to be registered where you spend the majority of your time. In my case that was my parents house. So I thought that should be a piece of cake. Well, not so quick!
Yesterday I submitted the online dog registration with the city of St. Poelten. I thought that they were going to process the papeerwork and send the dog tag along with the invoice for the registration. Well, that was a good plan...but didn't quite work out that way. A couple of hours lAter I got a phone call from the city telling me that they can't register the dog, since I'm officially registered in Vienna...therefore the dog needs to be registered there. I checked with the city of Vienna and I wasn't quit sure if I would make it in time. So the entire thing had ti wait till today.
I could have done the entire registration online, but that would have meant the city sends the dog tag and the invoice to my address in Vienn and I ha r to get it from there and then pay the invoice before the entire registration process is complete. On the other hand if I go personally to the 'MA 6', which does the dog licensing I can pay it there cash and take the dog tag with me right away. That just seemed to be the easier way. So I drove to Vienna, pRked in the Pstk & Ride in Wien-Huetteldorf, took the Subway and 1 Tram to 'MA 6' at the 'Magistratische Bezirksamt 6 & 7'. The cashier at the 'MA 6' directed me to the room next door where a clerk wrote down my information. Just my personal information, the dogs breed and the microchip number. I was pleasantly surprised that the city didn't require any import papers, although I had brought them with me just as a precaution. Then she handed me the dog tag and I paid the dog licensing fee of € 43.60 and I was done with the entire thing. Driving back and forth and dealing with the authorities was done in about 2 1/2 hours. The city clerks were friendly, very helpful and easy to deal with. That's definitely a A++ experience in my book!

Hanging out with Lydia

Today Lydia and I met in Vienna to hang out for a couple of times. This was also the first time, that we met since my Relocation to Austria. We decided to meet at Vienna's Naschmarkt (the closest US term would be a farmers market). The Naschmarkt was crazy and busy as usual. After walking by all the restaurants we decided to try an Indian Place, called Indian Pavillion. The food was quite yummy and it was great fun chatting with Lydia. Hanging out at Naschmarkt is always fun, but I could have done with out the accordion guy who tried to serenade us.
After lunch we took a walk through the 'MuseumsQuartier' (several meseums mixed together) and then we took a stroll up and down Mariahilfer Strasse, one of Vienna's main shopping streets. Was quite interesting to see that only minor things have changed. There are a couple of stores there, that are certainly worth checking out. I wasn't quite too sure what to make of the remodel of Westbahnhof (one of Vienna's railway stations). While walking back down Mariahilfer Strasse we took a stroll through 'Raimundhof'. It's one of the typical old Vieniese Buildings with several inner courtyards...very quiet and pieceful and it doesn"t feel that you're in the city. It definitely was a fun afternoon with Lydia.
At the subway we said our good bye's. Looking already forward to the next time, when Lydia and I will be hanging out in Vienna. I managed to get back to my parents just in time before today's thunderstorm started....and Daisy was no fan of the thunderstorm at all!!

My Mom's Birthday

Today is my Mom's 73rd Birthday. Initially my brother-in-law had planned to cook for her birthday. My dad didn't want to hear anything about that. He was arguing that cooking in 100 F temps in the evening was a terrible idea. I haven't been part of that family dynamic for the past 8 years (that certainly is one of the major benefits of having lived abroad) and I don't plan on going down that road again. It's just too stressful. After they all had argued back and forth for some time, it was decided that we would have dinner with my Mom at the Bootshaus, a Restaurant a couple of miles from my parents.
We got there around 6.30 pm. It's a nice place to hang out and have dinner...and they do have excellent food. I had a very yummy Porcini Meal (a local mushroom). I haven't had porcini in at least 10+ years. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their meal and my Mom had quite fun at her birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Hanging at Lunzer See

Today my parents wanted to take my nephew for a trip to Lunzer See. That's a mountain lake that's about 1 hour by car from my parents. I knew that dogs were allowed on the lake and so I figured it might be a fun thing to do with Daisy. We left around 10 am and got there at around 11 am. We walked over to the lake and Leonhard wanted to go for a boat ride. Since the boat rental place allowed dogs in their boats I figured I try it and see how Daisy reacts and from there. She saw the boat swaying back and forth...and that stopped her dead in her tracks. So I grabbed her and put her into the boat...and once she was in there she was perfectly fine with it. She looked around and finally found herself a comfy spot. Leonhard was steering the boat while I was taking pictures. It took about 30 min. to complete 1 trip around the entire like. After that Leonhard got bored and we headed back to the dock. After a couple of failed landing attempts we finally were at the dock. Daisy jumped out of the boat, as if she had been doing that all her life long.
Next my parents wanted to walk to a Inn/Restaurant called  Seeblick to have lunch there. That's about 1.5 miles and a very easy walk. Daisy had a blast checking out all the new and differnt scents and smells along the way. Since very few people were on that path I even let Leonhard carry the leash. Under normal circumstances one word from me is enough and Daisy waits for me. That was true for about 90% of that trail. That's when we suddenly encountered that kinda neurotic and way too overexcited Maltese mix. Narrow trail, 2 dogs coming face to face, 1 dog dominant and the other one overexcited and neither dog willing to give an inch...well that's a bad situation. If I have Daisy on the leash I break it up before it even starts. But this time my nephew was having the leash and so the 2 dogs had a minor skirmish. Lasted for about 1 or 2 seconds...than I had broken the entire thing off. Nobody got hurt, nobody was upset...it's just one of those things that happen and we all moved on. We continued with the hike to the Inn/Restaurant and sat down to have lunch. I had my 2nd Wiener Schnitzel in 2 weeks and it was very yummy.
After lunch we hiked back and Daisy learned something new today. At one of the creek crossing she finally figured out that she can drink out of the creek. She also figured out that it is way easier to drink from deeper parts of a creek. I had tried to teach her that years ago with no success. Now she suddenly figures it out all by herself. So far the move to Austria has given Daisy lots of new and interesting experiences.
Once we got back the the starting point of the hike along the lake Leonhard wanted to go for icecream. So we stopped and had some on the terrace of a Cafe, while Daisy was chillin' under the table. On the way back my dad wanted to show Leonhard the Kartause Gaming (a former monastery) to give him more understanding about his cultural heritage. Boy, that turned out to be one big mistake. That kid is argumentative that half of it would be more than plenty. When I was a kid I certainly wasn't that argumentative...at least not at that age. At that age you don't have much of a choice but to listen to what an adult wants to tell you about your cultural heritage. Acting completely offended and upset is certianly not an viable option...at least that's the case when it comes to my dad. Fortunately I will never ever have to deal with that can of worms, since I've come to the realization a long time ago,  that the last thing I need in my life are kids!!
You can check out more pix about this trip on my Facebook Page in the Photo-Album 'Lunzer See 2011'!!

BBQ at Danube River

Today my brother-in-law asked me if I wanted to join them for a BBQ at the Danube River. My sister had already spent the last night camping there with the kids and they needed someone to drive my parents 2nd car back home, since both of them had to attend 2 mandatory events in Vienna the next day. I decided to join them, as it sounded like a fun thing to do. It has been at least 10 years, since I've been to the Danube River Valley and it has been way longer than that, since I last hung out the river itself.
Of course Daisy was going to join as. I figured that could be quite an interesting experience for her. After Bernd and I had picked up some additional supplies we headed out. The Danube Valley is about a 30 min. drive from my parents. After some confusion with the freeways (some of the freeways didn't even exist when I was ther last) we finally made it there. The GPS was only of minor help as the GPS maps and the actual roads didn't entirely match and the GPS wanted to go into a certain direction. Pretty much the same what happened to my GPS while driving trough Yellowstone.
We finally made it to the peninsula Unterloiben and met up with my sister. It's actually a fun and great place to hang out. Quite humid but being a couple of feet from the water the temperatures or more moderate than at my parents. We even met a bunsh of nudists there. Well, this being Europe it's not a big deal at all. With certain people it works perfectly fine, but there were also a couple of people that should be required by law to ware swimming trunks...as this was not a pretty sight!

Daisy got to meet several other dogs and she even socialized with some of them for quite a while. Everyone was happy and relaxed and no issues at all. Later Daisy and I chilled at the beach and watched ships travel up and down the river, while my Sis, Brother-in-law and my 2 Nephews were having fun in the river. Not quite sure how much fun that could have been, since that river is quite chilly.

At 7 pm they started the campfire. I let Bernd and Leonhard do that, since that is a father-son event and they managed to get a pretty decent size fire going. Later I helped them a little out to prevent the fire from going out. Once we were happy with the amount of embers we started roasting Franks over the fire and it worked quite well. The potatoes never fully finished cooking since we couldn't put it into the embers itself, because we forgot to bring foil. But all in all it was a fun evening. Daisy couldn't have cared less about the campfire. She kept her respectful distance from it, but otherwise was way more interested in the sounds of the night.
A little after 9 pm both of my nephews fell asleep. I had planned to leave by about 10 pm. I had to take Leonhard with me, since he was going to spend the next day at a local lake with my parents. Bernd carried him to the car via the shorter route, through the water. I really didn't want to have a wet dog and so I chose the longer way back to the car. Even with the flashlight I wasn't quite sure about the right path and so my Sis led the way. I met up with Bernd at the car and we put Leonhard and the rest of the stuff in the car. When I was getting ready to leave I had to get used that this 'old' car ('99 Mazda 323) needs a ton of accelerator power for to move even an inch. Once I had gotten used to that everything else was a piece of cake. I made it back to my parents in about 30 min. and texted my brother-in-law right away that we made it back.
All in all a great evening at the Danube River and Dasiy seemed to have enjoyed herself!
I did learn something new today. Although this is the 21st century, there are apparently still so called 'family partiachs' in existence. My dad told me that he doesn't approve of such short term changes regarding events. I though that he should talk to my sister about that, since it really doesn't have to do much with me. Besides that even if he doesn't approve, that's not likely going to prevent such an event change nor is it going void the fun of the event. The one thing that came as a complete surprise to me is, that he thinks that such event changes are subject to his approval. Who knew ??

Captain America

After I got back today from hiking Ötschergräben my brother-in-law asked me if I wanted to join him to watch 'Captain Americ' in a local movie theatre. We got there with enough time to spare to grab a bite to eat. The movie theatre is called 'Hollywood Megaplex'. A place that calls itself 'Megaplex' should have more than 6 or 8 small movie theatres. They definitley should consider renaming the place into 'Microplex', that would be way more appropriate.But that's not even the major beef I have with that place. uck me as particularly odd was the fact that you have to pay for your movie tickets in cash. They don't accept credit cards and if you were to use your ATM card, they make you get the cash from the ATM. WTH is worng with those people ?? The movie theatre is  called Hollywood Megaplex...I'vw been to Hollywood lots of times, and that ain't it!! On top of that you can't get a single burger in there. WTF is wrong with the people in my parents town?? The only thing that was open was a miserely sports bar and a pizza place. Well me bing lactose intolerant a pizza would have been a rather bad idea. So we went a couple of blocks over and stoped by at a local McDonald's. There the 'provincial comedy' continued. I ordered my burger explicitly without cheese and I heard the manager tell the 'burger guy' to prep the burger without cheese. What does the burger guy put on the burger ?? You guessed right: Cheese. So much for take number 1. Well take number 2 finally did the trick.
Bernd and I headed back to the movie theatre and just had barely enough time to eat the burger before heading into the theatre. When I go to a movie I expect to see at least 15 minutes worth of previews. Not so in this theatre...they start the movie right away. If I were to be forced to have to live in that town...well that by itself would drive me nuts!!
Now onto the movie itself. I'm not going to write a synopsis about it since there are people who do a way better job than I. Just check out the Synopsis at IMDB.
Here's how I feel about the movie. Well I didn't have too many expectations to begin with. Absolutely hate the 3D and that movie certainly isn't going to change my position on 3D. As far as I'm concerned you would be way better off to watch it in 2D. There is one single effect in the entire movie where the 3D effect is really cool! The rest of the SFX is great and I really enjoyed them. The story itself is a little weak for my taste, and here's a note to Hollywood in general. Please come up with new villains!! Every second Superhero Movie has Nazis as villains. It's predictable, it's boring, it simply is BS!! Hollywood repeat after me: New Villains!!! Other than that it was a fun action movie to watch. Conidering the hyphe they created for that movie I would have expected more.
Now let's get a little into the absolutely terrible part, that I don't hold against the movie, since it doesn't have anything to do with it per se. Being forced to watch a movie dubed into German is absolutely horrible. It almost made me wanna puke!! I know what the actors sound like, and the dubs don't come even remotely close. There are parts in the movie, and not even short ones, where I can see that video and dubed audio don't match. That absolutely drives me crazy!! I hate, I can't stand it it's almost like a piece of art is being raped and nobody gives a shit about it!! People, for the future stop dubbing movies!! A movie that has been shot in English is meant to be seen in it's original language and not in German, French or whatever!!
This was also the first time that Daisy was without me since the Relocation. She definitely wasn't a happy camper. She was a little whiny and tried it with every trick in the book to convince me to take her with me. But at a certain point she knew she wasn't coming with me and just walked away and lay under the dining room table. My mom later told me that she was walking around the house looking for me and that she was whiny for quite some time. She then stayed very close to my mom and didn't let my mom out of her eyes. Later when my mom went to bed Daisy joined my dad while he was watching TV and she was pretty much fine. As soon as she saw me she went nuts and was super excited and super affectionate. OK, that were only 2 hours and she went through the whole relocation ordeal just 1 week ago, but she can handle it and that's quite good to know!

Daisy goes Ötschergräben

 Today I decided to take Daisy for her first Canyon Hike. The main reason was that it was going to be very humid and the temperature was going to be 100+ F. So I chose a easy hike into the Ötschergräben. My parents decided to join us. We left around 10 am and got to the trailhead around 11 am. It was already starting to get hot, but luckily large parts of that hike go through forests and that makes it way more enjoyable. We made goo progress and about 30 minutes later we got to the part where the trail starts to descend into the canyon. The trail is very easy and I was interested to see how Daisy was going to react to the bridges and creek crossings. At the first creek crossing she checked first the right and then the left side. Since there was no getting through there she looked to me for advice. I walked across the bridge and Daisy followed me without hesitation. All the other bridges and creek crossings were no problem at all. Daisy acted as if she had done that her whole life long. We made our way further down and saw for the first time the main canyon. That's always an impressive sight and usually pictures don't do the canyon justice. After about 45 minutes we reached 'Ötscherhias'. The closest US term for the 'Ötscherhias' would proabably a snackbar. We stopped and had a snack and something to drink, while Daisy relaxed under the table. There were quite a number of dogs out there and Daisy was quite curious about them.

She even socialized with 2 of them and ignored all the crazy ones. After we had a snack we continued with the ike upstream. Once we got to the parts where the trail gets quite narrow at times I was interested to see Daisy's reaction to that. For here that was no biggy at all and it looked like as if she had done that here entire life. Of course there were tons of places to check out new scents and smells. We followed the trail for a little over 1 hour to the next trail junction. If I had been by myself I probably would have hiked all the way to 'Vorder Ötscher' roughly 1 more hour. But you're only as strong as your weakest link. It was hot and my parents were kinda tired we decided to turn around and head back. We stopped for a drink at 'Ötscherhias' before hiking back to the car. Considering the heat, the humidity and the fact that Daisy is 14 years old she did an awesome job during the hike and she definitely had a blast.
You can check out more pix from the hike on my Facebook Page in the photo-album 'Ötschergräben 2011'!!

An unexpected Bath...

Today at 7 pm I was taking Daisy for her usual evening walk. My Sis, Bernd and my nephew Daniel joined me. Well it was kinda getting later than I had initially intened to and so we tried a shortcut over some rocks to not have to walk all the way back to the bridge. Well it worked like a charm, at least in the beginning. We were already about 2/3's across when it literally goes 'Splash', Daisy looses her balance and falls into the water. She only went about to her chest in and that river is at that time of the year barely moving at all. Without even thinking I grabbed her and fished her out of the water and carried her over to the large flat rocks I just did what every good Doggy Dad does! Daisy shook the water out of her coat a couple of times and that pretty much was the end of it. Although that dog is really watershy she didn't panic or get scared. She was more suprised about what just had happened. After we had gotten to my parents place I washed her down with the garden hose to get all the slush out of her coat. Now Daisy is washed and pretty much smells like roses again. Apparently Daisy is quite adventurous these days!

A Hike at Pyhra Wald

Since it was hot and humid today, I decided to take Daisy for her first Forest Hike in Austria. I chose Pyhra Wald since it is a great forest for moderate and fairly easy hikes and on the other hand it is only 10 minutes by car from my parents place. It was by far not Daisy's first time in a forest, but apparently there were so many different and new scents that she had to check out each and every one of them. I chose to take her for the bigger hike and we ended up with a hike that's almost 2 hours long. All in all Daisy was having a great time, but she was eating lots of grass and that told me, that there was something wrong with her stomach. It could have been the stress from the move itself or it could have to do with the deworming agent. Guess I will never know for sure. But after throwing up 2 times she felt way better, was way more energetic and back to her normal self. Of course I will keep an eye out for additional stomach troubles, but it seems that was the extent of it. All in all a great day and with exception of the throwing up part more great experiences for my girl!!

A Walk at Viehofner Seen

Today was Daisy's first day of settling into her new environment. Shortly before lunch my friend Sandra stopped by with her German Shepard, Isack. That guy is about 2.5 times Daisy's size. He's a nice and relaxed guz and after a few tense moments at the beginning, they were getting along and socializing with each other. So Daisy has already made 2 doggy friends, with whom she gets along with.
Later I took Daisy for a nice and easy at Viehofner Seen. That are 3 lakes, some of them not much bigger as a pond, that are an quiet and great place to hang out and take your dog for a walk. As always Daisy was super excited to go for a ride in the car. Hanging out at the lakes was tons of fun for her...and checking out the hundreds of new scents for was great as well. Almost gave her sensory overload. But Daisy definitely had tons of run running back and forth...left and right and checking scents almost at every single bush. Was great seeing her that excited. As far as I could tell she was making quite good progress with starting to settle in.
Later in the evening she got to experience her first thunderstorm in Austria. Although the thunder wasn't actually that loud she didn't like it a bit. She pressed her body against my legs and pretty much gave me the look: 'Daddy, please make it go away!' Since that was something I couldn't pull off I did the next best thing to that. I let her lie in the bed with me, that way she felt very secure protected by my body on e left and by the wall on the right. Fortunately the thunderstorm only lasted less than 1 hour and she was doing very well considering how much my girl hates lightning and thunder. All in all it was a great day and she is making good progress settling in.

Daisy's big Travel Day

Today was Daisy's big Travel Day...at least from my point of view (Middle-European Standard Time). When I got up this morning the first thing I did was to check on the progress of Daisy's flight. At that time she was halfway across the Atlantic, a little east of Greenland. I still had to go out and run some errands to get everything ready for Daisy's arrival. Since that was not going to happen till the evening, there was no rush. By the time I left to run errands, Daisy's flight was just entering the airspace over Ireland. 
I had planed to check 2 stores for Doggy supplies: Dehner and Fressnapf. First up was Fressnapf since they had a very good selection according to their website. I had to get dog food, food bowls, snacks and a doggy bed. Well I found everything I was looking for at Fressnapf. I even got a second 10 foot training leash, that I intend to use for hiking with Daisy. All in all I spent about 150 bucks. I probably could have saved a couple of bucks by getting some of the supplies at Dehner or by buying a no-name items. Considering the gas I use just for the driving back and forth, the savings wouldn't have been that substantial...and I really didn't want to go for no-name dog food and I even managed to find the brand Daisy was eating back in the States. So I was quite OK with the amount I spent. As soon as I got back home I checked on Daisy's flight and got the confirmation, that she had landed in Frankfurt/Germany. 
I knew she was going to have a 5 1/2 hour layover so there was enough time to completely set up Daisy's "new" place. I tried to figure out the flight number of Daisy's connecting flight to Vienna, but wasn't quite that successful with that. There were 2 Lufthansa flights, that she could take to Vienna. So I emailed Kenny, but he wasn't sure about the exact flight number either. So I sent an email to my PetRelocation specialist. 30 minutes later I got the flight number also the confirmation, that Daisy was on that flight. About 1 hour later she landed in Viennna/Austria. I knew she had go be picked up by the Austrian partner company of PetRelocation, called Animals First. They have go clear passport control with her and then they need to get clearance from to Austrian Veterinarian Authorities in order to proceed an further. How long that was going to take was anyone's guess at that moment. 
That gave me time to hang out with my friend Sandra at the local Inn/Pub, as she was going to leave the next day on her vacation to Turkey. Around 9 pm I walked over to my parents again to wait for Daisy's arrival. 
When I set up Daisy's Travel Plans about 4 month ago, PetRelocation estimated that Daisy would be delivered by 10 or 10.30 pm. At 9 pm I mailed my PetRelocation specialist to confirm that the original delivery time was still the right one. 10 minutes later the door bell rang and the guys from Animals First were there to deliver Daisy. I went outside and as soon as Daisy saw me she went nuts. She was totally excited, jumping up on me, giving tons of doggy kisses and was absolutely excited to see me. I chatted with the guys of Animals First for a little while and got also some advice to get a EU-Pet Passport if I intend to travel with Daisy within the EU. 
After that Daisy met my parents and she definitely remembered my mom, as she had spent some time with her back in April. Daisy wasn't too sure what to make of my Dad. That has nothing really to do with my dad, has more to do with the fact, that Daisy has a way harder time getting used to guys. With guys it takes her always way longer to warm up to them than with women. Then she had time to eat and drink, since she hadn't eaten all day long...and boy that dog was certainly hungry!
After that my friend Sandra and her husband came over to meet Daisy and Sandra thought that Daisy would be bigger than she actually is. Daisy was fine with Sandra and with her husband Walter, she showed the exact same reaction as with my dad. Several people from the local Inn/Pub wanted to meet Daisy as well and  I was willing to give it a try. First she met the innkeepers Dalmatian...and after a few tense moments they pretty much ignored each other. As the evening went on the slowly warmed up to each other. They're not BFF's but they did socialize with each other. Of course several of the women paid close wanted to pet Daisy and she let it happen and of course with petting come goodies...and she definitely loved those. It really didn't take Daisy long to get used go the place, mostly because I was just 1 or 2 feet away. In under one hour she felt so comfy that she actually fell asleep under the table.
Shortly before midnight Sandra, Walter and I said good bye and I took Daisy for a final walk and then showed her my parents place. As soon as she show the doggy bed she laid down on it and chilled out for the rest of the night. This concludes the big Travel Day of Daisy 'the Globetrotter'.

A Hike to Tirolerkogel

Today my parents wanted to go for a hike. So we settled for a rather easy hike from Annaberg to Tirolerkogel. Annaberg is about a 1 hour drive from my parents and we got there around 10 am. The hike itself is quite easy and actually very moderate and it took us a out 2 hours to reach the top. It still amazes me how much green there is around. From the top you have quite a very nice view of the surrounding mid-level mountains and I really enjoyed my time up there. Also got to see lots of Austrian cattle. This would have definitely been a great and fun hike for Daisy, but she won't get here till tomorrow evening.
One of the benefits of hiking Tirolerkogel is that on top of it is the Annaberger Haus, a mountain hut, and it's always great having a good lunch after a nice hike. I had a traditional Tiroler Groestl...it must have been at least 10 years since I had the last one. A couple of years I made a Tiroler Groestl in the States, but didn't find all the ingredients and so I had to find a substitute for certain thing. It still was very yummy but certainly not the real deal.
After lunch we relaxed a little and then headed back down to the car and by late afternoon we were back at my parents place.
Today was also the day that Daisy would start her long journey across the Atlantic to Europe. Around 6 pm I got word from my ex-husband, that the guys from PetRelocation had picked up Daisy. The guy seemed to be very nice and he seemed care about animals a lot. He also promised to take Daisy for a final walk before she was to board the plane. He was doing fine handling Daisy and she seemed quite excited to go for a ride...of course having to go for that ride inside the travel crate was not quite her idea of fun. But all in all she was doing very well.
Although Daisy was not going to fly before 2 pm they had to pick her up well in advance, since they had to drive to LAX and that's about a 2 hour drive. On top of that they have to get the approval for the travel crate from a TSA agent and get approval from the local USDA agent before Daisy is allowed to even board the plane.
I checked in flight tracker and knew that the plane had taken off. About 30 minutes into the flight I got word from my PetRelocation specialist, that Daisy was on board and en-route to Europe. After that confirmation I finally was able to go to bed.

Hanging out with Family & Friends

Today was pretty much a day of relaxing and hanging out with family. Still haven't quite gotten over the jet lag yet. I got up way too early and checked on emails, tweets and Facebook. Later in the my friend Sandra came over for a quick chat and we went over to e local inn for a little chat with her husband and several people, that I haven't seen in almost 9 years. Was actually quite a fun experience. Later my dad dad called Sandra's phone to tell me, that lunch was ready. So I headed back over to my parents.
Meanwhile my brother had arrived whom I haven't seen in ove 9 years. Was actualy fun hanging out with him and we hac a long chat about several things currently happening in our lives and we talked lots and lots about our animals. He was talking about his cat Artemis and I was talking a out my experience with my dog Daisy, who will be arriving on Thrusday. Funny thing is I never thought of my brother of that much of an animal person, but apparently I was wrong. Although my brother and I own pets of different species, they have one thing in common: our pets certainly have trained us very well!!
All in all it was a great day and I had fun hanging out with family.

Hanging with Family

Today was pretty much a day of relaxing and chilling out and an attempt to start to get over the Jetlag. I was having some interesting and fun conversations with my sister and brother-in-law. Later I went with them and my little nephew for an afternoon walk. Was quite enjoyable actually, although it was kinda humid...at least if you have spent living the past 8 years in a desert. That's definitely going to take time getting used to that.
Later my nephew Daniel had fun playing and shoeing each and every toy off to me and repeatedly invited me to join him and play with him. I've never ever seen him that excited to see me. Was quite fun but also exhausting at the same time.
Still feels a little weird and awkward being back home and it's going to take time getting used to that. Apparently I'm way more americanized than I initially realized to.
Later that day I tried to get a hold of the Vet since there had been slight changes in Daisy's blood work. According to the voice mail if the Vet it was nothing to worry about. I just wanted to know what the deal was and what to look out for. But I couldn't get a hold of the Vet since she had been out of the office today. So I emailed Kenny to ask the Vet about the deal whith the blood work, when he's going to take Daisy to her Final Exit Exam. He said he would do that and also told me that Daisy's USDA endorsed paperwork had been delivered today. Very happy about that, as that means that Daisy's Relocation is going to progress according to plan.

Returning back Home

I met my sister, my nephew and my brother-in-law at the airport, we said our hello's and drove out to my parents. Apparently the 'gossip network' must be working with perfect efficiency...because as soon we stopped in front of my parents house several people came over to greet me and welcome me back home. It was kinda a nice gesture, but after having been up for over 24 hours the only thing I really wanted to do is to relax and chill out.
My parents had planned an 'returning back home event' with a bottle of champagne. Shortly after taste event had started my friend Sandra joined us and it was quite fun catching up with family and friends and getting to know the latest gossip. Getting up to speed on the gossip of that small town has always some entertainment value.
Around midnight the event ended and I finally got to catch some shut eye. Well that was short lived, since it felt to me like mid- to late afternoon. There's one thing that I dislike about traveling from west to east: The Jetlag!

Relocation Day

Today it was finally time to leave the States and start with a new chapter of my life. Well that's both sad and kinda exciting at the same time. 
I got up and it it hit me right away that I was feeling entirely different. Today was the day that I was leaving not coming back. Is a weird feeling actually. Daisy knew from the get go that something was up. I started to finish up some last minute packing stuff and Kenny made pancakes for breakfast. They were very yummy. It will be quite a long time until I'll be having pancakes on US soil again. 
I finally got all the packing finished, took a shower and we headed out to LAX running 10 minutes late. I decided against bringing any food items for myself or for friends for 2 reasons: On the one hand there was absolutely no place in my suitcase or carry-on for them and the second reason are the strict import rules for food items into the UK for food products from Non-EU countries. I'm sure Jenny is not going to be a happy camper about that.
We got to the airport about 3 1/2 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. Kenny and I went into the Tom Bradley Terminal, but turns out that since I was flying with Air New Zealand I had to walk over to Terminal 2. Who knew? Once we got to the terminal we had to wait for about 1/2 hour for the check-in to open. While waiting for the check-in to open I had my second anxiety attack of the day...apparently it wasn't that bad, as nobody but I seemed to notice it. 
The check-in opened and the line slowly started to move. We were about halfway to the check-in when they directed us to the business class check-in in order to speed things up. That was the point when my anxiety level was rising again. I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen in regard with the emergency passport. But there weren't any problems at all. It was all within the weight limits and shortly thereafter we dropped the suitcase off at the TSA X-Ray screener. That's were Kenny and I said our finally good byes and we both agreed that we had 8 great years with each other. We hadn't been talking much all day and gave each other room to deal with our emotions. Kenny left the Terminal and I went in line for passport control and TSA screening. I was a little nervous about what was going to happen since this was a emergency passport. At the passport control the TSA agent just scanned the passport, made a checkmark on ticket and sent me on my way. Next up was the TSA screening. I obeyed with there rules and I walked through the metal detector without any issues. No Body Scan and no pad down. Compared to what we've gotten used to in regard to TSA screenings, well that really wasn't much 'fun' at all. So I'm not quite sure if their database didn't spit out my name or if it did and they automatically banned me from entering the country for the next 10 years. If the database didn't spit out my name, well then there is something seriously wrong. On the other hand if I had been banned from entering the US I would have at least expected to be questioned. So it's not quite sure what's the case. Either way, I'm happy that it was that painless. Next I sat down at the Starbucks and had my last Starbucks coffee on US soil. While sitting there I used the T-Mobile HotSpot to check on emails, tweets and Facebook and finished downloading the entertainment for the flight. Had about 1 1/2 hours to kill. By 4 pm I finally boarded the plane when I read that Kenny was quite very emotional about me leaving. I had to turn off my phone, so I planned to check on that when I got to London.
The plane left on schedule. I completely had forgotten how much I love starts and  landings. And actually I do find flying quite enjoyable. The flight was quite uneventful...at least in the beginning. Through the Mid-West the flight was quite bouncy and bumpy. I wouldn't quite call it a rough flight, but way more turbulences than usual. I tried to sleep during the flight, but somehow I was feeling a little emotional myself and so I was watching onboard entertainment during the flight. First I watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It's a very enjoyable movie, but somehow I don't think the story is as good as the one of the first movie. Next up was dinner, some 'beef thingy' with mash potatoes. Next I watched the movie 'The Switch'. Very light entertainment but very enjoyable as well. Up next was the movie 'Thor'. Loved it...especially loved the SFX. In the beginning the story is a little weak, but it picks up and delivers everything what I expect from a superhero/action movie. Then I watched the movie 'You Again'. This is very light entertainment and enjoyable actually. After that I still had about 1/2 hour to kill and so I started watching 'Modern Family'. Then breakfast was served. After breakfast I watched 2 more episodes of 'Modern Family' before we started the descend to London. The plane landed about 10 minutes delayed. Not bad for a transcontinental flight. All in all Air New Zealand has really great service, their crew is very friendly & customer oriented and I would chose them again. 
Going through passport control in London was pretty easy and uneventful. First I tried to find free WiFi but no luck with that. But I pretty much knew that already since I had checked on Heathrow airport before I was going to LAX. I put the Austrian Sim Card into my phone and it let's me send text to Austrian numbers, but doesn't like international numbers for some reason. So I sent a text to my friend Sandra, that I'm in London...but not entirely sure if she got it. My Austrian Sim places restrictions on the data roaming and for that reason I couldn't connect to the Internet. So I decided to pay the £ 2.95 to have Internet for 1 hour. I found myself a quite comfy spot in a coffee shop, bought a big bottle of water and took full advantage of the 1 hour Internet. Checked my eMails, Tweets and Facebook. Updated my status and so on...was definitely totally worth it. After my hour of Internet was over I still had a little over 1 hour to kill. So I started writing this Blog Post as an iPad Note. I actually made good progress and by the time I had to leave for my last flight of the day, I had actually finished the Blog Post up till landing at London's Heathrow airport.
When I had walked over to the gate, that my last flight was leaving from, I realized that this was only 2 gates from where I had landed. It than occurred to me that this had to be some secret plot to piss travelers off. They drag you all the way from the gate to the 'central terminal' just to check your friggin' passport and than you've to walk back where you were to begin with. Apparently border protection agencies have problems with simple logic: I just spent 10 hours on a transcontinental flight, my identify has been thoroughly checked, I can't leave and enter the flight transfer area...so why on earth are you asking me for my passport again. It's not like I could have magically changed my identity. Better not to question that or it just might give you a award winning headache. 
Well I finally made it to the gate and after some delays with their boarding procedure I made it onto the plane and you get greeted by operetta music. My reaction to that was: You have to be gotta kidding me. That's the last thing I need friggin' operetta music! Almost made me wanna puke! That airbus A321 is really  some crummy and uncomfy thing especially having spent a transcontinental flight on a new Boeing 767...that's a 'luxury liner' compared to that antiquated piece of machinery. We left about 10 minutes late and we were supposed to get a warm meal during the 2 hour flight. This warm meal turned out to s tiny "Gugelhupf" and coffee...Cake and Coffee is not exactly what I would call a warm meal. Well there isn't much you can do about it and it just shows you that to customer service of Austrian Airlines is as bad as it used to be 10 years ago!! Doesn't come really as a surprise at all. After flying through some minor turbulences we finally landed in Vienna about 15 minutes early. I made it through security in pretty much record time by going through the EU-Citizen only passport control and that really speeds things up. Buy the time I was at the baggage claim I saw a text message from my brother-in-law and I texted back that I was waiting for my luggage. I my Grabbed my suitcase and went through customs with no delay at all. I met up with my sister, my little nephew and my brother-in-law and we drove out to my parents place. This completes a long day of traveling from the States to Europe.

So it all comes to an End...

That's certainly a quite sobering title for a Blog Post. But it pretty much describes it very well. When I met Kenny 8+ years ago I would have never ever imagined that it would ever end. It just shows you that you never know what future has in store for you and that 'life' really is a living and breathing thing. Although Kenny and I have been broken up for month's and although I knew the travel date for a couple of month it didn't feel that real. We have still been living together and have been doing many of the things we used to do when we were still a couple...that contributed to the feeling that it didn't feel all that real. The real magnitude of what is going to happen tomorrow hit me when I was packing my suitcase. One the one hand it's kinda sad, but on the other hand it's quite exciting as well to start a new chapter in my life and see what future holds store for me.
Today there were a lot of things going on. First I compiled all the document copies of  Daisy's Health Records, because I needed to create a Check-List for Kenny when it comes to the Daisy's Second Exit Exam and to the Travel Day. Next I checked with my Pet-Relocation specialist if the flea/tick treatment Daisy is currently on is the right product for the move. Just as I suspected we're good with that product.
Next I had to run several errands. First I finally sent the confirmation the the Austrian Consulate General, that I had gotten the Emergency Passport. Next I headed out to AHF pick up my Meds. On my way back I stopped at Petsmart to pick up more K9 Advantix II, since we were out. Next up was a stop at Stater Bros. to pick up Shaving Cream and Tooth Paste. After that I had to get gas for the truck before heading back home. It was about 3.30 when I finally had lunch.
Then I started packing the suitcase. Well that took way more time, than I initially thought it would. With certain items I repeatedly changed my mind if I was going to put them into the suitcase or the carry-on. Finally I found a solution for all items that I was happy with. I was positively surprised as everything actually fit into suitcase and carry-on.
Once all that was done I sat down and started working on Daisy's Check-List for Kenny. I was about halfway done with that Check-List when Kenny got home from work. We headed out for dinner to Outback Steakhouse in Palmdale. As always the food was very yummy. Once we were back home I finished locking top and bottom half's of the Travel Crate together, installed the water dishes and refill-funnels. Kenny offered to saw the Crate Pad to Daisy's comforter and that gave me time to finish the Check-List for Daisy. After that we checked on the Fedex shipment of the documents to the USDA. Turns out the documents, that were supposed to be shipped over night and get to the USDA by Thursday, didn't make it there till Friday morning. If that is enough time for the documents to get here for the scheduled Second Exit Exam on Tuesday morning is anyone's guess. I emailed my Pet-Relocation specialist that info to see if he thinks that is enough time or not...but I won't be hearing anything back till Monday.
I will keep you guys posted on that!!

Daisy's First Exit Exam

Today I had an appointment with the Vet for her First Exit Exam. My regular Vet was not available for this appointment and I got to know Dr. Franklin, who is very nice and will also conducting Daisy' Second Exit Exam. That entire appointment was quite long...lasted about 1 1/2 hours. Lots of things to do, even more paperwork to fill out and a lot of Health Records need to be pulled. Overall Daisy's physical exam was fine and she is very healthy for her age. She got a clean bill of health and is allowed to fly. There are only 2 things that the physical exam revealed. The knee on her left hind leg is slightly deteriorated, but with Glucosamine and Fish Oil she doesn't have any problems with it. The second thing is a very small Benign Tumor, that has been there for the past 1 1/2 years and hasn't changed at all. Currently it doesn't pose any problem, but both issues are two areas that I have to keep watching.
While the Vet was finishing the International Health Certificate, I filled out my information on the EU-Health Certificate. After I was done the Vet filled out the rest of the EU-Health Certificate, except for the part that has to be filled out during the Second Exit Exam. Next they scanned Daisy's Microchip and the Vet-Tech went to give her the Bordetella Booster Shot. All the other shots are current. Since Daisy is a senior dog, they did do a blood panel as well, not quite sure why she didn't get the blood panel back in February. After that they faxed the health documents to PetRelocation.com
While I was still at the Vet I called my relocation specialist and he told me that the Vet has to sign the Eu-Health Certificate and that I need the Original Rabies In order to get the USDA endorsement. So I had to wait another 10 minutes for the Vet to finish the Rabies Certificate and to sign the EU-Health Certificate. During that time Daisy was socializing with several dogs...I certainly was surprised about that, since Daisy has a hard time getting along with other dogs. On top of that she even let a couple of women pet her, apparently my girl is getting social as a senior.
After I had all the Health Documents I headed back home, made copies of all the documents in case the USDA should loose them. I had a quick bite to eat before heading out again. Had to drive out to Palmdale, since that is the closest Fedex location to us and dropped the documents off. Now Daisy's Health Documents are en-route to Sacramento for USDA endorsement. I should get back the endorsed documents either by the end of this week or by Monday at the latest.

A long Night of Packing...

Well this was certainly a long night of packing. By midnight I had created all the encrypted disk images and starting to fill them them with the appropriate files. At the same time I was cloning the Master Volume to the second external hard drive. Having only USB at my disposal it was a long and time consuming process. By about 5 am I had put all the files into the encrypted disk images and was moving them into deep system levels. That way they're out of direct sight and nosy custom officials would really know what to look for. It would certainly take them a long time to locate those Dmg's and than they will be met with heavy duty encryption.
Turns out cloning the Master Volume took way longer than I imagined in my worst nightmares. By 6.30 AM I started to pack all the misc. items into bubble wrap, since those had to go as well into box with the electronics. At 7.30 am the Master Volume had finally been cloned and I shut the iMac down for the last time...at least while living in the States. I wrapped the 2nd monitor and the iMac very well in bubble wrap, to make sure that the electronics were well protected. I managed to fit everything except the folder with the files into the electronic box. I topped the top of the electronic box up with about 1/2 bag of packing noodles and taped the box shut. After that put the folder with the files into a small box and taped I shut tightly. The only thing left to do was to put address labels on all the boxes and by 9 AM I was finally done.
At that time I decided not to go to bed, since the shipping company was supposed to ice up the boxes about 3 hours later. So I relaxed in the recliner instead and started to watch TV. I didn't see much of what was on TV, as I fell asleep and got about 2 hours of sleep. When I woke up I felt so much better and quite well rested actually, considering that I had been up for 25+ hours.
Next up was a call to PetRelocatio.com to check, if the fact that Kenny will be taking Daisy to the Final Exit Exam, has any implication for the EU-Health Certificate. Turns out that this doesn't matter at all, since I'm Consignor and Consignee at the same time anyway. That was quite a relief and I forwarded Kenny's Contact Info to PetRelocation.com.
At 1 PM the guys from the moving company showed up. I filled out the required paperwork and they took over the boxes and they're now en-route to Long Beach. Within the next few days I should receive a electronic bill, that has to be paid before the boxes can go on a Container Ship. How long it will take for the boxes to get to Austria is anyone's guess. That can be somewhere in the ballpark from 6 to 8 weeks, but can take up to 3 month. Depending if the Container Ship goes directly to Germany or if it enters the EU via UK. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.
After lunch I relaxed a little more and even tried to take a nap,as 2 hours sleep really isn't that much...but I'm feeling surprisingly good. Next up was a call to my VET to make sure that they have the form for the International Health Certificate in stock. So it looks like as if everything regarding Daisy's First Exit Exam is ready to go.

Last Day of Packing

Today was supposed to be the last day of packing. I start with the entire prep-work at 9 am and was sure that would be a piece of cake. Well there's an old German saying that seems to apply here: 'Erstens kommt alles ganz anders, und zweitens als man denkt". Loosely translated it means that things never work out the way the plan them.
I knew before I could even start to pack the box with the electronics I had to create a 'Master Volume' of the combined external hard drives and then clone the 'Master Volume'. It's so so much that it would be difficult to do, but it takes quite a lot of time. By 6 pm the Master Volume was finished and I was ready to clone it. First I had to create encrypted and password protected disk images. Certain files are of a private and personal nature and no nosy customs official has any business looking at them. That was the main reason why I went down that road. Creating all the necessary disk images with a really good encryption takes hours. While that was happening I had planned to pick up additional packing supplies. While I was at the store I got an email that the credit card payment for s previous purchase had been declined. It has to do Chase's Fraud Protection and the way they handle the small amount credit card charges fir iTunes. So I didn't even bother to try and since I didn't have any cash on me, I could only head back home empty handed. It goes without saying that I was anything but happy about that.
So I texted Kenny and he offered to pick up the packing supplies on his way home. During that time I was continuing to create encrypted disk images and was making good progress. At that time I was quite hopeful that I wouldn't have to pull an all nighter. Later Kenny called and told me the office supply store was out of packing noodles / peanuts. The only place I could think of might have some was the Lowe's next door. We decided that, if he couldn't find any packing noodles he would bring home several rolls of bubble wrap. By the time Kenny got home and brought El Pollo for dinner. That's probably the last time I will be having El Pollo in a very long time. After dinner we watched the latest episode of Eureka. It was another great episode. Later we read on Twitter that SyFy had just cancelled Eureka...that's absolutely devastating news.
But I had to go back and deal with the cloning of my external hard drives. Around 11.30 PM I was done creating encrypted disk images and started transferring the files into the appropriate disk image. Transferring files between 2 external hard drives via USB is awfully slow and time consuming. If I could have used FireWire for that I would have been so much faster. But since those 2 hard drives don't offer me that option, well there was no reason bitching about that. You just have to suck it up and deal with it. At that point it was pretty much clear to me that I have no other choice than to pull an all nighter.
To be continued...

Visiting Family

Today Kenny and I were visiting with his family. I has been 6 or 8 weeks since I've seen them last. With all the relocation preparation and the packing going there wasn't much time for family visits. It is also the last time that I will have the chance to hang out with them.
Kenny's Dad is looking so much better now. Apparently they really got a handle of his cancer and I'm very happy about that. We took Kenny's Dad out for lunch to Hongkong, our favorite Chinese Restaurant. Here we have another last...it is the last time that I will be having Chinese from Hongkong Restaurant...unless of course they should decide to open a branch of Hongkong Restaurant in Europe. As usual the food was delicious.
After lunch we headed back to the house to hang out with Kenny's nephew and sister-in-law. It was fun watching Kenny and Kenobi play with Kenny's new iPad. We hang out for about 2 hours and then started to head back home. On our way home we picked up Burrito's at Miguel Jr. in Corona. And here we have another last...it's the last time that I will be having Miguel Jr. unless they should open a branch in Europe.
The last 2 weeks have been full of doing things for the last time. If that last is absolute or temporarily...only future will tell.
All in all it was a great day and I enjoyed it a lot!!

iPad Goodies

Today Kenny and I went out to get some accessories for the iPad. First we headed to the Chili's in Santa Clarita to have lunch. This marks also the last time that I will be having Chili's. After lunch we went first to the Best Buys and Santa Clarita and looked at iPad accessories. We finally settled for an Bluetooth Keyboard and something called Camera Connection Kit. This kit lets you transfer media from a SD-Card directly to your iPac. The second plug of the camera connection kit lets you do the same thing with a USB-Connection.
After that we headed over to the new Apple Store in Valencia. We weren't quite sure where the Apple store exactly was but after a couple of failed attempts we finally managed to locate the Apple Store. Lots and lots of Goodies to look at. I finally settled for something called a Smart Cover to protedct the front surface of my iPad. After that we headed back home. I had to test out the goodies right away and the worked perfectly fine. Very happy with the purchase. All evening I was playing around with my new iPad...and so far I can say that I'm pretty much in love with it.

Going Away Party

Today was pretty much a day of 'Going Away Events'. First up was a lunch meeting with my friend Lydia. We had tried to set up an appointment for a lunch meeting all week long and finally settled for today at noon. Original we were considering going to a Islands, but finally decided to go to Umami Burger in Studio City. I had never been there and the food was very yummy. Lydia and I had a great lunch meeting. After that we took down a stroll down Ventura Boulevard. We stopped at a Jaba Juice and Lydia got a Mango Juice. We sat outside and chatted for quite a while. We had a really great time and this will be the last time that Lydia and I get to hang out in the States. There is a possibility that we will be meeting in Vienna in a couple of weeks when she will be for a visit in Vienna. After we had said our good byes I headed back home. Had about 2 hours to kill. I finished backing up my iMac and played a little more around with my new iPad.
Around 6.30 pm I headed to to Burbank to meet with a group of friends for my 'Going Away Party'. I got there actually fairly quick...considering that it was Friday evening. I spent about 1/2 just sitting in my car checking email, tweets and so on. Abuout 10 minutes before 8 I headed over to Gordon Biersch. Kenny was already there and shortly after every one else started to show up. At 8 we went in and sat down for dinner. Luckily Kenny had thought to call in a reservation, as I would have completely forgotten about that. The food was very delicious and it was fun chatting with friends about the upcoming move and the implication of that move. It was also great to catch up with people as I haven't seen some of them in quite a long time. It was definitely a great evening and I had lots of fun. Around 10 pm we decided to call in the night and everyone started to head back home. The 'Going Away Party' was also the first time where the finality of me leaving the States hit me and it made me feel a little sad as well. For most part I'm really looking forward to the move and to the things future holds in store for me.
Thanks Kenny, John & Moises, Chris & Mark, Tom, Ervin and Angie who made this a great evening!!

More packing...

Today I had another day of packing. I havinally managed to pack Box #4. First I wrapped the Butcher Block in Bubble Wrap to protect it during the transport and put it at the bottom of the box. Next up were the box, that I,ve chosen to take with me. I wrapped those as well in bubble wrap and protected the outside edges with rolled up T-Shirts. Then I packed layer after layer of cloths, that are not going into suitcase, into the box. By the time the box was full, all the cloths that have to go into a shipping box had been packed away. By the time I taped the box up nice and thigh, I realized that this is definitelynone of the heavier boxes. Now that box #4 is packed I'm very happy with the progress. There's now only 1 box that needs to be packed ANC that's the box with the electronics. I hope to have that box packed by the end of this weekend.
While I was doing all the packing the iPads, Kenny and I had ordered, arrived. I was very excited about that and had I hard time not opening it right away. If I had unpacked it I knew that I wouldn't have gotten anything done and played around with the iPad all afternoon long. Luckily I managed to keep on packing.
In the evening when Kenny got back from work we unpacked the iPads, charged them up and started to play around with them. Well there is definitely s learning curve to that. As the evening went one I got better at it. First I was having the usual issue that have mostly to do wi getting used to a new device, but I very much liking my iPad. Downloaded some very cool Apps and very much loving them.

Running Errands again...

Well today was supposed to be split between running errands and dealing with documents and paperwork regarding the relocation.
First thing up was driving to Best Buy in Santa Clarita to pick up a second External Hard Drive, since I'm almost ready to clone External Hard Drive #1. I knew I needed at least 1.5 TB, but couldn't find any. I finally found several 2 TB drives and settled for a Western Digital. After I had bought the hard drive I head back home. I continued to sync external hard drive #1 and started to deal with the paperwork.
The originals of my personal documents and the paperwork regarding the relocation will go in my carry-on bag. A copy of all those documents will be placed in the suitcase. I've also created a online version of those documents in case something happens to the first 2 sets.
I had planned on finishing up with all the documents, that way I just have to put them into the right bag on the day of the relocation. Well, apparently nothing ever works out the way you plan it. I had finished the majority of the documents, when I hit a snag...I ran out of paper for the printer. Well, I decided not to drive 15 miles to pick up a new box of paper...instead I called Kenny and asked him to pick up a box of paper on his way home. I guess finishing up the paperwork will have to wait.
I did continue with the syncing of the hard drive and made very good progress...almost managed to finish the entire sync!!

Goodies in the Mail...

Today I received some 'Goodies' in the mail. They didn't come as a complete surprise, after all I had ordered them and knew they were supposed to be arriving between the August 2nd and August 4th. That they arrived right on the 1nd was a very nice surprise.
Package number 1 contained the 2 travel locks for the luggage and the power converters for Europe. Now I should be able to charge all my US electronics without any issues. Very happy about that.
Package number 2 contained my new SmartPhone and having a working smartphone during the move to Europe is absolutely essential for me. Those of you who read my Blog regularly know that my BlackBerry died on me. (If you want to know more about that, check out the Blog Post: RIP BlackBerry Bold). After having done some research I decided to get the Nexus S. I wanted a SmartPhone that is pretty much in the same group as the iPhone, but that doesn't require me to have to sign a 2 year contract. The unlocked version allows me to do just that. On top of that it gives me the option to use my smartphone as mobile wifi hotspot for other devices. Since I'm now longer locked into a contract I can just change the cellphone provider by buying a new prepaid Sim Card...and that's a major plus in my book.
If you want to know more about my new smartphone check out the Nexus S on the web!!

More Packing

Today I had planned to do more packing and intended to pack shipping box #4. First I had to attend to my overflowing email inbox. With all the emailing question about quotes back and forth and finalizing certain details regarding the upcoming relocation, my inbox was quite overflowing and getting quite chaotic. So today I created several sub-labels and moved quite a lot of emails into those sub-labels. That way only the current confirmation are in my inbox and that made my inbox way more manageable.
Before I could even start packing Box #4 I had to do a packing test of how much is going to fit into the suitcase. Well, that was easier said than done. Before I could do the test I had to go through Underwear and Socks and decide what's going into the suitcase and what's going into the box. I finally decided that all the underwear that isn't XL can go into the shipping box.
I finally did the first packing test of the suitcase...and of course it was a little too full for my taste. So I decided to put 9 T-Shirts less into the suitcase and that way there was enough room. I was way happier with that. The weight of the pack suitcase of was a little under 40 lbs and that's way within the weight limits of the flight. That's at least true for the 1st flight from LAX to London. The flight from London to Vienna is a flight with Austrian Airlines and knowing AUA I thought it would be a good idea to check the weight limits on that flight. I thought that should be no problem at all as I had the phone number of their call center. Well, that was a big mistake!! I hardly could believe what I was hearing...the call center only operates between 8 am an 5 pm... WTF!!! Well, I never really liked Austrian Airlines to begin with, but now I really dislike them!! The point of a call center is that you can call there 24 hours a day to get information and not that you have to call there between regular office hours...that idea is just ludicrous!!