First Day of Work...

Today was my first day of work after a 2 week vacation. It has also been the first realy vacation since I started working for my current company. When I got to work I expected to find my desk had been decalered an disaster area. Well, it didn't look like that at first glance. My desk looked quite in order actually...and I found that highly supicous. And my feeling was right. I started with the cash register and it worked out quite fine.
Then I started to look through all stacks and it turns out the the entire disaster was actually hidden. There were things packed togehter that didn't even have to remotest thing to do with each other. And I'm not even talking about the timeframe. Things were in the pack of the piles that should have been in the front. And the things that had been most urgent were somewhere in the middle. Of course my co-worker hadn't touched the things that should have been dealt right away. So I had a couple of rather unfriendly emails waiting for me. And had to deal with a couple of people on the phone asking me the subject hadn't been dealt with. If my co-worker really had looked into the subject he could have solved it by himself. Guess that was a little to much to expect. And quite honestly I really didn't expect that. And then there were a couple of subjects regard year-end tax paperwork that he could have figured out himself, but apparently didn't feel like using his head and digging into the subject himself. That he couldn't figure out certain issues for the tax guys, I can undestand that...since it took me about 2 hours to think the issue through and figure out why I solved a couple of items a certain way.
So all in all it wasn't horrible, but it took me almost 5 hours to sort through all the paperwork and bring them in the necessary order. Now comes then fun part of working through them in a timly manner. By the time my work day was over I was actually still quite relaxed. That was a little suprising to me, since usually the recreational value of a vaction doesn't last longer than being 2 hours at work again.
When I got back home I was quite eager to figure out how Daisy had been. Wasn't entirely sure how she would react to of me having to go back to work after the move from the 12th to the 5th district. Since this was the first time that she had been all day by herself in the new apartment I let my camcorder record the entire thing. For the first 1 1/2 hours she walked up to the door and was waiting every time she heard some noise in the hallway. After that she just jumped onto the couch at slept for most of the time. Made here and there a round through the apartemnt and changed occasionlly her sleeping position. But she wasn't whining or complaining at all. So I guess all the complaing she did when we moved first to Vienna had to do with the change from the countryside to the big city and the suddenly she had to stay all by herself, after having had my family around for almost 1 year. So I'm very happy about that.

Amazing Race Ep. "We're not in Oklahoma no more"...

Today I finally got around to watch the season premier of Amzing Race season 23. For the past couple of seasons I've been recording audio comments of each episode. But due to my recent move my iMac is still packed away and I really don't want to deal with the basic audi tool on my laptop. For this season I will do my thoughts on each episode a little differently. First of all I voice my opinion an the end of each segment and it will be all in written form. That means of course that during one single episode it is quite possible that my view of a team might just change back and forth. And here it goes...
We have another start in LA. Nothing really special about that. The start on the set of a Western Town gave me hope that things would be a little differently. But just using a little the visual Ambience of a Western Town and just doing the regular start was really boring. I would have expected more. For example a buggy race to the cars comes to mind instantly and would have been much more fun.
This is season 23 and people still don't prepare for the race to LAX. SERIOUSLY!! And there are language barriers in LA...would could have predicted that one. I'm absolutely shocked! LOL...
We learn that they are agian using 2 express passes and everyone is totally stoked about it. Seriously!! Hasn't anyone watched last season and we all know how that turned out. The express pass isn't that benefitial at all. It much rather puts a huge target on your back.
The Roadblock. Well was not really exciting. We had something way too similar within the last 2 seasons. And that makes you question if the producers have run out of challenges or if the've just become complacent. The paragliding challange was quite a disappointment.
Well, the "Fish Challenge" wasn't the most exciting challenge, but it still was fun to watch. Here are some of my thoughts. You go on the Amazing Race, but you don't train how to row a boat? Because in the entire history of the Amazing Race there has never ever been a rowing challenge. SERIOUSLY!! This is now season 23 and Surprise, Surprise...people are still not reading their clues! Are you friggn' kidding me!!! Does anyone actually watch any season of the Amazing Race before going on the race? Hmmm...it just doesn't look that way.
I don't have a favorite team so far. But I don't absolutely dislike any team at this point either. Not a real fan of the former couple. The constant pickering and arguing makes for good TV, but gets really anoying with the time. The two "Barbie Type" teams aren't among my favorite teams either. But I'm happy that Team "Hippie" is still around. They seem like a team that is going to be fun to watch. But if TEam "Oklahoma" doesn't get their acto together in regard of directions, they might just become Team "Getting regularly Lost".

High Speed Internet...

This afternoon was going to be my appointment with UPC to have my Highspeed Internet transferred to my new place. But this day started out way earlier, since I was going to pick up my Mom at my Sis' place.
So I got up at 5 am, took Daisy for her morning walk and then had breakfast. By about 6 am I had to leave to head over to my Sis...and it would talk me almost 1 hour to get there. Daisy and 1 took the tram through Vienna's 1st District and then out the the 18th District where my sister lives. And we got there around 7 am. I picked up my Mom and my nephew Daniel who was also going to join us. We headed back by tram to my apartment and I showed my Mom my new place. She really liked my choice of colors and liked my new apartment as well. We had time to catch up, since we hadn't seen each other in about 1 year. By 10 am my nephew got restless as this was quite boring for him. So I packed up Daisy and brought showed them the way to Vienna's Train Terminal West. I went to the train gate with them and we said our good bye's.
Daisy and I headed back to the apartment, had some lunch and waited for the UPC guy to show up. The appointment was between noon and 5 pm. He showed up at 1 pm and that's defintely a plus in my book. Usually I wouldn't even have to be at home to have my Internet transferred. They just have to plug in 2 cables in the house and that's it. But he had to install the outlets in the apartment, since there had never been any UPC internet installed. All in all it took him about 20 minutes to do the entire installation and after that the internet and and TV worked perfectly now. Now I can even use my UPC DVR and even watch regular German Cable TV. And of course that's exactly what I did. Watching German Cable Shows is fine. But having to watch US TV-Series dubbed into Geman almost makes me wanna puke! Shows I watch regularly and especially anything Star Trek I refuse to watch in German. But for regualr German Cable and cheesy SciFi Movies it's fine. But I will never ever watch mainstream Movies in German as they were meant to be watched in English. And I only have the TV Channels because they're part of my Internet Package deal.
But having my Highspeed Internet back again is really quite nice!

Minor Trouble Shooting...

This morning I had the appointment at 8.30 am with the realtor for my old apartment. Knowing Daisy issues with separation anxiety I brought her along. I really didn't want to take the chanaces of her having to stay in the new place all by herself. I plan on testing that out, but not before Thursday or Friday. I got to my apointment just in time. I made a walkthrough with the realtor, he took a couple of pix and I gave him one of the keyes of the apartment. That way he can show the place any time he wants to, without me having to be there each and every time.
When I got back the my new place I didn't feel like doing much. On the one hand the weather was quite unfriendly and I hadn't gotten too much sleep for the past week. So I planned on taking a short nap. Well the short nap turned out to be 3 hours long. Then I was motivated to do some cleaning in the kitchen and then moved on to put all the kitchen stuff in it's place. That's easier said than done, since my new kitchen is way smaller than the one in my old apartment...So you really have to think through what is going to go where. While I was doing that I realized that the hot water wasn't working. So I called the plumber who does a lot of plubing, electrical stuff and who also heater service for the company managing the building. I thought it would take him a couple of days to show up. But as luck will have it he was on his way to my apartmetn building and was going to take a look at it. He showed up about 2 hours later and showed me how to trouble shoot the heating unit if that should occur again. He also mentioned that, if this keeps happening on a regular basis there is one part that needs to be changed and that I shoudl call him if I want to change this part. Best thing was that this visit was free of charge.
Next up I connected my washer/dryer and did a test run and it runs perfectly. Then I did some minor bathroom setup. And shortly after that I noticed that Daisy had found her new 'Daisy Den'. Appartenly the place between tub, bathroom sink and washer makes a perfect den. Next up were a few minor fixes of my paintjob before I called in the night.

Moving Day...

For the moving day I had hired a moving company to move all the boxes and the heavy stuff like the couch, TV and expecially the 200 lbs washer/dryer. So I got up around 6 am and took Daisy for her morning walk. After we got back I had breakfast and then packed up some last minute items. I was done with all that by 8 am. Then the only thing left to do was to wait for the moving company to show up. Well, they were supposed to show up by 8 am...and at 8.20 am the bell finally rang. So that wasn't that much of waiting time.
We made our first walk-through and I told them what all had to be moved. Well, they had carried down the boxes in absolutely no time. That would be something that would have taken me at least 2 hours. Next up was my living room couch follwed by the TV and finally the carried down the 200 lbs washer/dryer. Those 2 guys are really used to doing that stuff. And expecially one of them was quite an eyecandy. I certianly wouldn't have thrown him out of my bed.
While all that moving was going on, Daisy had to stay in the kitchen, because she would have been in the way all the time. There's one thing that this dog knows to do perfectly...find the worst spot possible! Once all the stuff was in the moving truck, I left Daisy at my old apartment and headed over to my new place. I got there a couple of minutes after the moving guys got there. In the new place it was way easier, since there is an elevator and you don't have to carry all the stuff up 4 flights of stairs. By 10.30 am the entire move was over. And it only cost me 250 bucks. That's money well spent as far as I'm concerned. And should I ever move again I wouldn't hesitate to hire that moving comany again.

The plan was to get some cleaning supplies and then pick up Daisy, head over to the new place and do some cleaning and to head out to the hardware store for some supplies I was missing. But we all know, that nothing ever works out as planned. When I left the store I got a call from the realtor of my old place that he intended to show the place the next day. With me having already moved out, that wasn't the issue. But during all the packing I hadn't done any cleaning in my old place in the past 10 days...and it really showed. So I grabbed some cleaning supplies and headed over to the old place to get some basic cleaning done. The bathroom and living room were done fairly quickly. Then I packed up some stuff that I didn't have any moving box for and transproted that stuff over to my new place. Having to take public transportation for that was actually not that bad. After some lunch I headed back over to my old place to finish cleaning the the kitchen and the living room. By the time I was done it was about 7 pm. I probably could have let it the way it was, but first of all I didn't want it to look like pigsty and second I really didn't want that any amount is being deducted from my security deposit.
When I got to my new apartment I just put the the couch in it's place, connected BluRay Player and TV, ordered some Pizza and that finally brought this moving day to an end. Well, I won't be having any highspeed internet until Thursday...but for those few Days I will be using my cell phone as protable WiFi Hotspot.

Pre-Move Weekend...

Those of you wo read my Blog regularly probably know that I had borrowed my Sis' car over the weekend to move some items, that I don't trust the moving guys with. These items included my computers, the monitor and some other heavy kitchen appliances that I didn't want to buy an extra stable box for and of course the loose items form the kitchen and the bathroom. I also transported Daisy's
Doggy Crate and the paint cans. When I initially planned the pre-move I thought that wouldn't be more than 2 or 3 boxes at the most. But things just kept adding up.
Originally I had planned to move everything on Saturday, but sicne I had the car for both days I divided it in 2 even loads. But carrying down all that stuff over 3 flights of stairs and packing it in the car is way more time consuming and way more exhausting than I thought. On top of that Daisy was not what you call a happy camper. She kept whining each time I left with one box. And I still have a vivid memory how badly that went 1 1/2 years ago. I really didn't want to have Daisy walk up and down with me with each trip. But the separation anxiety didn't take over and Daisy calmed down and waited right at the door for me to return. As soon as I got back she was completely overexcited. But that something I can live with.
Once the car was packed I picked up Daisy and we headed over to my new apartment in Vienna's 5th district. This is a fairly short ride by car. Takes you approximately 10 minutes. I was fortunate to get a parking spot right in front of my apartment building. I had Daisy stay in the car while I unloaded one elevator load worth of stuff. Then picked up Daisy, loaded up the elevator and brought the stuff into the apartment. I was done in under 30 minutes, while it had taken me about 1 1/2 hours to carry all the stuff down in my old place.
Once we were done we headed over to my old place and I finished packing up everything for the moving guys. The rest that didn't fit anywhere had to be transported by car. I was short aboutz 2 boxes. Really underestimated all the things I had acquired in the last 1 1/2 years. By the time I realized I was short of boxes I couldn't by any additional ones since the store had already closed for the weekend. So I prepped it for the second pre-move trip for the next.
While I warmed up left-over dinner from the day before poor Daisy was just sleeping right there in the middle of the kitchen compeletely exhausted from all the moving anxiety. But the fact that the separation anxiety didn't get the best of her gives me hope that she will get used to the new place during my vacation and that I won't have to put her back in anti-separation anxiety drugs as I had to do 1 1/2 years earlier. I had planned on watching a movie, but didn't even see 1/3 of it. By the time I woke up again it was about 1.30 am the movie was already over, and I had just one more beer and headed to bed.
On Sunday we repeated pretty much exactly what we had done on Saturday. Once again Daisy was able to keep her seperation anxiety in check. So I'm quite happy about that. By the time I had pretty much wrapped up the pre-move my Sis called me and asked if I could pick her and Bernd up from the railway station, since they were returning from a mountaineering trip over the weekend. Picked them up at the railway station and since my new place is only about 10 minutes by car I showed them how far the place has gotten so far. My Sis pointed out the lack of view of my new apartment, but that's just the thing with urban living. You rarely get a good view. And the view from my apartment really wasn't a deciding factor for me. Bernd on the other hand liked the way the apartment is cut. Although the apartment is only about 57 square meters (615 sqf) it looks way bigger.
After my Sis and Bernd had left I brought some order into all the items I had moved. Now my future bedroom has the look of a warehouse. I continued to do some touch up work with my paintjob. By the time I ran out of light I headed over to my old place and that brought the pre-move weekend to an end. There's once thing I can say with certainty...comple physical exhaustion really feels exhausting.

Visiting my Sis...

Today I had planned to head over to my Sis right after work. Well that didn't quite happen. Everything would have worked out perfectly if I had gotten off work at 4 pm as I had planned. But since it took me till 5.30 pm to wrap things up, my time table was pretty much screwed up. I had to make a trip to the hardware store to pick up some items I still needed for the move. That went fairly quickly. Then I headed over to my old place to pick up Daisy. At this point the 7 pm time table to be at my Sis was still possible. But a heavy down pour had other plans and I wasn't going to go out with Daisy in that kind of weather an be completely soaked by the time I would be getting to the subway. Luckily these down pours usually don't last that long. So I was only running about 1/2 hour late.
It was the first time since Easter that I had hung out with my Sis. We only live about 30 minutes apart from each other, but we have to very different life styles and so we don't see each other that often as we would like to. My 2 nephews were deligthed to see Daisy. And it was also the first time that Daisy met my Sis' 2 cats. And lets put it that way Daisy and cats are not exactly friends. The only thing Daisy wanted to do is to chase the cat. That's just something I've never been able to change. Those 2 cats didn't quite like her either, but were way too curious for their own good. So Daisy had to stay on the leash. For most parts that worked out quite fine. There was one tense moment though. But for the rest of the evening we could observe a staring match betwen Daisy and the 2 cats.
We did catch up on what was going on in each others life and by 9 pm we said our good byes and I picked up my Sis' car that she let me borrow for the pre-move that I had planned for the next day. Daisy and I got home by about 9.30 pm. Usually while I'm cooking Daisy is watching me. But from all the excitement with the cats and from the almost 2 hour long staring duell, poor Daisy was all wiped out and slept alle stretched out in the middle of the kitchen. She didn't even open her eyes when I was walking around. The rest of the evening was quiet and relaxed since the next day was going to be an exhausting one.

Last Day of Work...

Today was the last day before I went on vacation. I was hoping to get out of work by 4 pm at the latest. Well, that's something that just didn't happen. There were way too many things to deal with and to many loose ends to tie up. On top of all of that I had to figure out the best way to set up the new form for payment reminders. With the update of our software to the new version all the all forms became invalid and had to be created again. Well, I thought being an accountant that wouldn't be my job. The way I understand it, that would be the way of the Software and IT-Guys...after all we are paying them to do that job. But as it turns out it's my job to do that. So I managed to get one form up and running. Not that I'm entirely happy with it, but at least for now it's a workable solution. I didn't get the forms for the other 2 sub-companies done. I hope that my co-worker is able to get that done. I told him, if he can't figure it out by himself he should call the Tech-Guys. But something tells me that the entire update of the forms isn't goint to work out the way it is supposed to. Maybe I'm being pessimistic here. But knowing my co-worker I really don't think it's going to turn out the right way. And that I will have to deal with it once I get back from my vacation.
By the time I left work it was 5.30 pm and on my way home I had the feeling that I had forgotten something. Well a couple of hours later it hit me that I hadn't completed one statistic that the Federal Statistic Agency want's to have by the 15th of each month. I considered for a second to come in on Tuesday and finish the damned thing. But than I remebered how deal with the statistics of other co-workers. We tell the Agency that the co-worker is on vacation and that it will be done as soon as he is back. If that should turn out to be a problem...well, my boss has my cell number and can call me...otherwise I really couldn't care less...at least at this particular point in time.
Apparently after not having had a real vacation for more thatn  1 1/2 years I'm more than overdue for it.

The Packing continues...

Today I didn't go over to my new place. I stayed in my old apartment to continue with the packing. This has been an ongoing process over the last several weeks. And it actually isn't that easy. You have to think very carefully through what you're going to pack. Since I'm still working I can't pack a lot of things, because I still need them for work. And of course the kitchen can't be packed up and that is going to take quite some time. But I did manage to pack up most of the bedroom. At least that stuff, that I won't be needung during the next week. I also managed to pack up most of my office stuff. Of course the computers are not packed up yet and I really don't want the moving guys to move my computers. I rather be doing that myself. Already talked to my Sis and I wil be borrowing her car most likely on the next Saturday to move some stuff, that I don't want to trust the moving guys with. That will give me the entire Sunday to pack up the entire kitchen. So far I think the packing is moving along at a fairly nice pace. But poor Daisy isn't quite sure what to make of the entire packing and she's even less sure how to feel about the spending parts of the time in the new place and parts of my free time in the old place.

Painting Round 2...

Today was going to be another day of painting. At least that was the plan. But as we all know, sometimes things don't work out as planned. I got pretty much around the time I wanted to, but I went and got a haircut first, since that was the last time that was going to be possible before my vacation starts. So I got a little a later start than I would have liked to.
I picked up Daisy and we headed over to my new place and I started with painting round number 3 of the living room. These walls suck up way more color than expected. Well, I probably could have just done touch up's...but there were quite a bit of them and so I figured I might as well do another round. By the time I was finished I was happy the way it turned out.
Next up was that, what will eventually become may work and eating area. Luckily I had already taped all the corners off when I did the prep-work for the painting and so I didn't have to waste much time with it. So I painted round numer one. And with these walls the first round of painting always looks like a bad paint job. By the time I was finished on one end the color was dry enough for round number two. Can't say that I was a big fan of that, as I was getting a headache and I forgot to bring any Aspirin and my should muscles were starting to bother me. But I put all of that out of my mind, since I really wanted to get in 2 rounds of painting in the rest of the living room. On top of that I was already 6 pm when I started with round 3. So the light situation was slowly becoming an issues as well. But I did finsish round number 2. I think it turned out OK. By the time I was done there was just not enough day light to check the quality on the paint job. I was just happy that I managed to get the round number two done. I cleaned my self up a little and headed back home. And how did Daisy spend the day? She was in the middle of the 'pain area' and spent it most time sleeping, while I was working hard. Guess in my next time I want to come back as a dog!
I really wanted to order outfood, since I so didn't feel like cooking. But since I had already purchased all the ingredients I stuck with the original plan of cooking. Peeled the potatoes and cooked them for the Erbs-Wurst Soup. Is kind of an adaptation of a traditional hiker's meal in Austria. Easy to prepare and very cheap. What you do is you cook peeled potatoes and once they are done you throw them in the blender. After it's all blended put them back in the pot warm it up and add Peas and small pieces of Sausage...and you're done. With the right seasoning it's a quite tasty meal epecially if you've been working hard all day long. When I relaxad after dinner on the couch all my muslces and a lot of joints were hurting. Some of those muscles I didn't even realize that I had them before the entire painting marathon. And I would have given a kingdome for a good massage. But since nobody was around to do the task, I had to be without a massage.
I had planned of watchting a movie, but guess what...I fell asleep in front of the TV and woke up around 3.30 am. Apparently I really needed the sleep.

Registering in Vienna's 5th District...

Every citizen in Austria is supposed to change your registration withn 3 days after moving into a new place. The law isn't entirely clear what contitutes the process of moving. Is the process of moving considered when you physically move into a new place or is the fact of signing a lease enough requiring you to change your registration. Well I wasn't going to argue with civil servants that point, as you can only loose that argument. But  I have limited time and so it didn't happen within a 3-day period after signing the lease. It was more like a 10-day period.
I wanted to do that before moving into new place since I have to go district office to do so and it usually requries some waiting. I wanted to do that beforehand, since I didn't want Daisy to have to be in the new apartment alone by herself right after moving. So today I took the time and went down to the Magistratische Bezirksamt for the 5th District right when they opened at 8 am. I was prepared to wait about 1/2 at the least to put in your paperwork and have your registration changed. I was quite surprised to find that I was only the second person waiting. And I was done changing my registration within 5 minutes. That was the fastest I've ever been in and out of the district office in my life.
Once I got to work and emailed a copy of my new registration to the city in order to change Daisy registration to the 5th district as well. Now Daisy and I are both oficially rigistered in Margareten (Vienna's 5th District).
I also forwarded a copy of my changed registration to our human resources department in order to get my 2 aditional days off for moving. I talked it out with them and we decided that they would just take 2 days off my regular vacation days, since I'm moving during my vacation. So instead of having to take 10 vacation days I will only take 8 and still have a 2 week vacation.

Let the remodeling begin...

Since I got the keyes I got also a look at the freshly painted apartment. And as it is quite common it had been painted white. The bright white just isn't my thing. And I figured I might start with the painting of the living room right away before moving in any furniture. Transporting the heavy paint cans and the rest of the painting suppies by tram isn't that easy. Yes, it's possible...but probalby not the most effective way to do that. First I thought about getting a rental car for that. But for one day they want to charge you about 80 bucks and on top of your credit card and your drivers license they want a valid passport from you as well. Currently I don't own a valid passport. So I canceled the rental car and went with a cab instead. I could fit all the stuff I needed to transport easily in the cab and it cost me only 12 bucks.
After I had dropped off all the painting suppies at my new place, I went back and picked up Daisy. When it comes to Trams and public transportation Daisy just is a natural. Even with her being 16 years old she still loves to go for rides. We got to the new place and it was Daisy's first time checking out the new apartment. Well, she checked it out but wasn't quite entirely sure what to make of it. She did stand long in front of the patio door but didn't dare to walk outside by herself. Finally she settled down while I started setting up the paint area and do all the taping off. And it always takes a ton of time. By the time I was done with all of that, the day light was fading and we headed back to my old place to get some dinner. All in all it was a quite sucessful Saturday.
On Sunday Daisy and I headed over to the new place and I started painting. I had decided to paint that part of the living room first where the couch is going. Then I painted all he corners of the rest. By the time I was done with that I started with the second coat of paint. All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out. But I'm still not sure if it's going to need a 3rd coat of paint, since these wall suck up paint like crazy.