Transition continues

I worked a half-day today to take care of errands that were moving related.  I combined two of my retirement accounts (four is too many for me) and cancelled my gym membership.  I also reread the POV documents and contacted USAA for information in that regard.  Tomorrow, I'll contact the DMV to keep the ball rolling on getting POV paperwork taken care of.  Wow, that's a lot of acronyms (POV = Privately Owned Vehicle (the term used when transporting one's vehicle overseas), USAA = United Services Automobile Association (the loan company for the car), DMV = Department of Motor Vehicles (state-level car registration office)).  

The basics are simple with POV transport, but there are a lot of details to be aware of...copies of the title, copies of the orders, copies of the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), letter of allowance by the loan company to transport the vehicle...and then there are the parts about keeping the car clean and empty.  They make a point in that each car is worth thousands of dollars.  I think a lot of people, myself included, lose sight of that because our car's are always there and we tend to take them for granted.  I need to get into that frame of mode.  There is the real possibility that the car could get damaged or lost in transport.

Saint Paul got the weak side of a snow storm that hit the northern suburbs and Duluth a little harder.  Duluth got 16 inches in one night!  Compare that to Saint Paul that got only about 2 to 3 inches of snow and at least 1 inch of rain.  The temperature never got below freezing here, so it's a bunch of watery slush right now.  If it still stays above freezing as predicted, it should all melt away in a few days.  It's damp and wet 30's here, but it still beats below 0 freezing wind.

More news on the Georgia front.  Rifle training continues.  Tomorrow, they will pull almost an 18 hour day so that they can all train on night-vision tracer bullets.  They also have to stay on the range until they pass their firing test.  The downside is that it's quite humid there right now and it's expected to rain during the day tomorrow to boot.  Hopefully, the rain won't last if it arrives at all tomorrow.  My wife's heels are healing very well.  She says about 80% of the skin has healed now which is pretty impressive.  She said things really got moving once she was put on antibiotics, but that also could have been coincidence given how much time passed before she was on the antibiotics.  

She also had blisters under her index toenails that are now healing which I did not know about until now.  The one toenail is back to normal, but the other look like it may fall off.  This has happened to me many times with the exact same toenails.  It only happens to me when I run for a long time in bad socks.  Nothing to worry about.  It will eventually fall off without any notice, the skin where the nail used to be will harden into a mock toenail, and the new nail will grow and eventually push off the hardened skin.  It's actually a neat and painless process.  

She's also making headway on paperwork for travel, so we'll hopefully have more news on that the beginning of next week.

Singing and Soccer

Today at work was productive.  I got everything finished off ahead of schedule today that I expected to have done tomorrow.  My wife and I had some discussion about me possibly cutting back my hours or stopping work completely much earlier than I originally planned.  I may do that in light of everything that needs to be done soon.

We found out today that the POV shipment takes 6-8 weeks.  This means we're already behind the ball on that. We will probably have to rent a car in Germany which we were told is far more expensive than renting in America.  Oh well, I'll see what I can do.  It makes it a little tricky because I'll have to get the car to port in Baltimore, but possibly get back home only to head back to Atlanta in a week or so afterward.  Maybe flying Etsy over to Atlanta makes more sense?  I don't now.  It's a noteworthy ordeal because, according to our sponsor in Germany, we'll need a car for the first several weeks just to get in-processing done.  Guess we'll be off to a crazy start, but then again, my Austrian friend Christian did warn me about the paperwork involved moving into Germany.

I have been asked by the St. Casimir's music coordinator to sing with my sister this weekend at St. Casimir's.  While I'm not sure how this will work, it will close the loop for me on that aspect of moving out as she is replacing me.

My soccer game was okay.  It was great in that Antonio finally got a goal.  His first in Minnesota, and he gets knee surgery next week.  I was happy for him.  He was asking me for a lot of tactical advise with the team today too.  I feel like he finds me either inspirational or a good mentor for the team.  It's a weird feeling because my advice is usually not solicited in this regard.  We lost, and I only played about 5 minutes, but I made those minutes count.  It was still worth it to go.  I really hope to play soccer in Germany.  Hopefully, full game times with full teams on a full field.  You get a real workout, but I think it's way more fun.

On the Georgia front, weapons training has been going on yesterday and today.  Yesterday, she was not doing so well hitting the target and got a lot of flak for it.  Today, they were to zero their sights, and she was one of the first to get it done correctly.  Suddenly, she was highly regarded.  I imagine she'll have weapons training tomorrow too.  I know she's enjoying this part of her training :)

In the background, she needs to coordinate with our sponsor and get flight tickets for our trip.  Concurrently, I have to coordinate traveling with the dog and getting the car shipped ASAP.  The list keeps on going:)

Another day at work

Interesting day.

At work, I mentioned that I was available to help wherever needed.  Then things got interesting.  Suddenly, I had four complex report folders and a validation to do that all need completion by Wednesday.  I average 1.5 complex folders a day typically.  Lots of other drama ensued, but long story short, it about sums up my position.

To add to the day, a huge snow storm is predicted tomorrow.  I might have to miss my soccer game because of it :(  I'll try to not let that happen.

I sense that things will get rough at work the first several months I'm gone.  Shifts in power at the lab is something I've had to deal with about three times now, so I'm pretty sure it will happen the same way again except this time it's someone very much not like me in the middle.  It's actually kind of fun imagining the several different ways the drama will continue.  It's a lot like a bad reality show episode :)

My lovely wife purchased me my first professional massage.  The masseuse did a really good job on my neck.  Not surprisingly, when I inquired, it was confirmed that aside from a little tension in my trapezious and rhomboids, I was in pretty good shape.  They kept asking if I wanted to schedule another appointment and I had the best excuse...Um, I'll be out of the country in less than a month.  Thank you oh so much!  It was perfect that I had it today given how work was.

On the Georgia front, today she got to fire some weapons!  She was disappointed in how poor her accuracy was.  I told her it's just a good excuse for her to get that pistol she's always wanted and practice a lot :)  Sounds like a future date for both of us to me :)

Easter and Haywire

I kept busy today.  I went to mass at the cathedral for the first time in a while.  I couldn't help but draw on the parallels I'm currently experiencing between Lent and moving to Germany.  Both situations deal with a lot of anticipatory excitement.  Both occur over very similar if not identical time frames...the house being vacant for the first time on Ash Wednesday and active duty in Germany starts the very day after Easter.  Lots of preparation is involved...spiritual preparation for the death and return of Christ and emotional, spiritual, financial, professional, social, cultural, and probably every other type of preparation needed for the move to Germany and the beginning of a very new and different career and family.  I thought the deacon had a respectable sermon as well.  At one point he quoted the bible saying, "Now is the time of fulfillment."  Things seem to be going well for so many people close to me.  It really does feel like the good are finally reaping the rewards of their labors.

Afterward, I finally saw the movie Haywire.  The action scenes were better than I expected...quite brutal and realistic.  The brutality was more extreme because the main character was a woman, so it seemed even more harsh to me when the bigger men start beating on her and then she kicks in to MMA fight tactics and wins every single fight.  The supporting cast was unreal: Michael Douglas, Antonio Bandaras, Ewan MacGregor, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton...Channing Tatum was in it too and he did alright.  The main actress was clearly an MMA fighter...not much in the acting department but a way good call for action scenes and utilizing her relatively attractive looks and her being almost the only woman in the movie with a field of guys for contrast.  I would see the sequel if they ever came out with one.

When I got home, walked the dog, and had dinner, I was crazy tired.  It was probably due to a combination of the late night last night and the perpetual moving during today.  I rested for about an hour, then rallied and got our federal taxes done.  The military has a mypay website for W2's, which is nice.  They organize almost all of you tax forms in one personalized website.  Very convenient.  Filing jointly is a slighly different animal.  Even with the PILES of items we donated, we're still better off with the standard deduction.  We do get a refund, but comparatively smaller than at least what I'm used to.  I'll be curious to see what state comes out to.  I also got a couple of bills taken care of and will FINALLY get B and L's gift out to them.  I found their address with relative ease online.

I do get a massage tomorrow.  I've never had a professional massage before, so I am curious to see how it goes.  Thank you, my lovely wife!

On the Georgia front, things are moving along, even if there continues to be drama.  My wife's personal task was to clean her room, and hang out with classmates during the day.  She's very happy to have Land Nav behind her so she can focus on the next thing they throw at her.

Send off day

Today, I spent a lot of time on paperwork.  I sent in the needed paperwork for the HUD application to sell the house.  While I'm not sure on how it impacts the sale of the house, I know that it is the bank getting general information about my finances.  Because it's a military relocation situation, our short-sale consultant said that it's really just a formality and they won't even check on the figures.

I also got a massage scheduled for Monday, so we'll see how relaxed I get on Monday evening:)  My lovely wife got me the massage as a gift.  I love her so.

I worked further on taxes too.  My wife notified me of the Taxes Center service that's available.  It's supposedly free tax filings for military service members and their families.  I may dig into that.  Surprisingly, even after all of our itemized deductions, we might be better off using the standard deduction.  I'll see how much time I have left available.  I may have to go to the center just from a time standpoint.

I had a sendoff party that K-borg hosted for me.  It was really good food and good company too.  I didn't actually spend much time on games at all.  That was okay, though, because the conversations I had were very good quality.  I got to chat with many people that I actually enjoyed chatting with and caught up with several people I hadn't seen in three years.  I disconnected with many of them at that time frame because I was beginning to get very serious with my future wife then.

I'll see if I can sneak finishing K-borg's custom 5 track cribbage board before leaving town.  It was a project he entrusted to me, and I have let it sit by the wayside for several years now.  Spence has the tools at his house.  I just have to get over there to do it.  It probably would only take a handful of hours to complete.  We'll see.  I've got plenty of other things to focus on right now too, but it would really be great to get that gift for him.

On the Georgia front, she had a long FaceTime session with me this afternoon.  It was a really good conversation.  Her ankles are healing.  Her room was messy so she was looking forward to cleaning it today:)  She had also seen a couple movies with friends and played a card game I was not familiar with before...Playing Cards Against Humanity.  It seems to be an adult version of Apples-to-Apples.  Sounds like it was fun.

Acts of quitting, paying mortgage, and valor

Today, I had an "exit strategy meeting" at work.  R and F will write me letters of recommendation.  F had some suggestions for employment for me in Germany which I honestly had not considered before.  F even offered further aid if needed.  I've known F to be very generous when the chips are down, so I took the offer to be very of-the-heart.

I spent the day writing up a general outline for showing my replacement the ropes.  Going through the paperwork again, it's funny how I actually have all the necessary documentation in place for almost everything, it's just that a large part of it has not been approved for use.  There is just too much to go through it all in a short amount of time.

After work, I finally paid off the 2nd mortgage at TCF.  I've dealt with some of their loan officers, but this particular one did not want to be there for that last half hour before leaving for the weekend.  I feel like she did not appreciate me being there and was certainly not excited to see me pay off the loan.  I was quite irritated with how she never offered to really do anything for me at all.  Maybe she was annoyed that she had nothing to sell me.

Compare that TCF experience with my AffinityPlus experience where they go so far as to agree that USAA is a fantastic credit union and did not disuade me from using them at all.  I absolutely love AffinityPlus's customer service!  They are one thing I will miss about Minnesota.  I'll compare their credit card offer against USAA's.  I would hate to let them go.

I have increased the walk distance route for Etsy.  She was so squirrelly the past two days that I figured she needed the extra walk.  It has worked.  She was not nearly as crazy today, although she did not contain herself well at Lake Phalen when she walked past a black dog that did not look too terribly different from herself.  I also noticed a few other bad habits she picked up while I was away this past week.  I'll work them back out.  It's just funny how quickly she can lose that discipline.  She does pick it back up almost as quickly, though.

Finally, I saw the movie Act of Valor.  Not my first pick, but I think it was the best choice given the other options available.  The scripting and acting was just like those training movies I hear my wife had watched in class!  The combat scenes were pretty good and informative.  I want to spill the beans on this, but if you do decide to see the movie, I don't want to spoil it.  They did get their jobs done quickly with high kill ratios and minimal collateral damage and in the end that's what matters.  I also liked how they demonstrated the sacrifices the soldiers and their families make to do what they do but have it be an integral part of their service to the country...an accepted part of the job.  Another thing I liked was how calm, quiet, and collected they all were when executing their objectives.  Whenever a man went down, they didn't freak out.  When something went wrong, they didn't freak out.  The only bummer about the way the movie was shot was that they really glossed over all of the prep everyone does before executing a mission.  They all had trained extensively in all of the combat they did, they all had to study and read up on the terrain and the multiple extract points and possible opposition they would encounter, and they all had to learn from substantial intelligence surveillance on the people involved before going in.  I think it was a good movie for me to see.  If you do see the movie, I would have to say that I like their first mission the best.

On the Georgia front, my wife passed her land nav today!  I'm so proud!  I think she is a lot tougher than she  probably ever realized.  She has done so much in such a short time.

Upkeep, Upgrade, and Pizza!

Returning to work has been interesting.  I found that my notebook that I had been using to record morning lab meetings was used while I was away, but pretty much no other items I had created for quality control had been getting used.  I think I'll pull the boss aside tomorrow and get squared away once and for all with whom I'm supposed to be training to replace me.  Given the calendar, I'm seriously considering finishing two weeks from tomorrow as I'm not sure if I'll even be in town by that point.

Upgrading the RAM on this laptop was surprisingly cheap.  2GB of RAM for $35?  That's unheard of for someone who usually messes with desktops.  It could be that the parts are just smaller.  Anyway, it was a funny ordeal.  What should have taken 15 minutes took two hours over the course of the day.  The laptop's original RAM had stickers over the part numbers, so the first Geek Squad guy read the label but couldn't figure out why the RAM chips wouldn't fit in the slots.  The second Geek Squad employee was this young girl, probably not even out of high school, who figured it all out in minutes.  What took her so long was finding the right parts throughout the store as some had been misplaced.

I got a hair cut from my cousin-in-law-in-law who is an accomplished cosmetician (stylist for the layman).  The encounter was funny too.  She thought that my wife and I had already left the country, so she wondered if I had flown all the way cross-country just to get a haircut from her.  I had her trim down my scruff (that I have let grow for three weeks now because of the craziness) so that I can completely shave it tomorrow.  I also had the neck cleaned up and the sides trimmed down.  She agrees with my wife that the longer hair sets a lot better on my head.  She said I could probably let it grow out to even six inches and it would look fine.  I don't think I could let it grow that long.  Here are some before and after photos.

A brief aside...  I actually researched online the general effects different hairstyles create.  The goal is to have an oval-shaped appearing head because that is the most natural and appealing human head shape.  This is generally achieved by using the hair to blur the shape-defining features and create the illusion of an oval-shaped head if you don't have one.

I have a combination of a long and triangular shaped head.  You can see how the beard rounds out the sharp chin I have and the fluffy sideburns widen out the otherwise narrow head shape.  Glasses also aid in rounding out a long face as it hides the outline by the temples.  The long look of my head is exaggerated with my hair both not blurring the scalp line and adding length where there is already too much overall.

I know...great that you know all this, so why don't you do something about it?  I already have.  My present look is already slightly different than what it used to be.  I'm gradually trying little things here and there to settle into a comfortable alternative.

My wife purchased Ove Gloves before February.  I kept them as one of the select items to hold onto while I stay in the house.  They work really nicely!  The pizza was really tasty too!

Very little chatter from Georgia today.  She did not do Land Nav today, but I don't know if that is because of rain that was expected or because of her blisters.  She spent dinner with co-workers so I'm sure she is in high spirits.  She does have Land Nav tomorrow, and she's hoping to pass her test for that tomorrow as well.  Last class she had she learned some plotting tactics as far as taking the test goes that she hopes to employ this time around. I hope everything goes well tomorrow!

And so Lent begins...

Wow!  Today was a whirlwind of packing.  The team of four guys wrapped the big furniture items and loaded the truck from 9am to 3:30pm straight today.  One of the guys, Armando, was very impressive to watch.  Within seconds using only cardboard, tape, and a knife, he created custom boxes, custom packing, and padded flooring.  Watching him work, I honestly believe he could create a house in less than an hour if he wanted to!  His supervisor told me, with humble pride, that Armando is the best worker he's ever seen in all of his thirty years in the business and that he was very fortunate to have Armando be willing to work for him.  They were all very courteous and friendly, striking conversation with me and themselves throughout the day.  They also very consciously checked on me every hour and a half, I think in part to keep a good rapport but also to make sure that everything was being packed and being packed appropriately.

In all, they packed roughly 6 or 7 wooden boxes filled with our things.  The boxes were roughly 7' x 6' x 4'.  Yes, our household items almost completely filled a semi-truck trailer!  I was a little embarrassed to learn this, as I always like to think that I don't own many material objects.  In the end, two professional packers and four professional movers for two solid work days.  I wonder how long it would have taken me on my own...4 weeks?

The house is now empty, save a few items here and there.  I find it fitting that today is Ash Wednesday and our first day of duty is the first day after Easter.  My Lenten sacrifice has been dictated for me: no TV, no desktop computer, and very few material items.  I should now be a very good boy and finish taxes and learn German.  Easter really will be a birth for our little family...the start of our new european life:)

Here are several brief videos of the now empty house.  I get to live here for at least three more weeks with the dog and my select items to hold me over until then.

My wife has asked me several times how the empty house is affecting me.  In all honestly, I have been imagining this for over a month now.  The house is almost as empty now as when I first moved into it, so it actually is a good feeling of closure.  If anything, I feel like this is the calm before the storm in Germany.  I feel like the clock is actually ticking now for the complete move.  However, work tomorrow...bleh.

Etsy seems to be handling the missing items in the house okay.  She really is used to her kennel as her "home" now.  I'm finding that as long as it's around, she's ok.  She was very happy to see me when I picked her up.  My sister took good care of her including having given her a full body brush down.

On the Georgia front, after three days of land navigation, my wife's boots finally are getting the better of her. She ended "Land Nav" today with blisters on both feet.  Bear in mind, each of these past three days she has been on her feet for 5+ hours straight on uneven terrain for this course.  Based upon average human foot speed of 4 mph, she has been averaging 20 miles each day for the past several days...and gets to do more tomorrow!  She has spoken with Cadre for advice on optimizing care of her feet for this phase of the training and also solicited advice from other fellow classmates who have served in infantry.  She now has a full arsenal of knowledge with how to take the best care of her feet for her present environment.  We shall see tomorrow if it works.  I hope it does.  Walking with blisters is never a fun way to be.

Oy!  Back to the grind tomorrow after nearly a week hiatus.  I'll have to pull the plug on work eventually, probably within the next month, but it is difficult to know the best time for it as I still don't know when our plane leaves for Germany.  I'll hopefully get that information this week.

Back from Chicago only to pack

The big move started today.  It turned out that, at least psychologically, I was pretty well prepared.  C+R helped out coordinating things with the movers and packed our items for Indiana in their truck.  I was pretty impressed...R got almost everything in the trunk of the truck.  I was convinced they were going to need a U-Haul trailer.

The packers were from Allied Freight, were very nice and crazy efficient.  There were only two of them, both women to my surprise, they arrived around 8:10am and were done by 2:00pm.  They also were very generous with packing food.  I was under the impression that none of the food was getting packed.  They ended up packing almost all of it!  An option also exists for them to move the piano to my sister's house, for a charge.  I'll check on that tomorrow.  If the price is right, we might be able to take care of that too!  I definitely want to give C+R a gift of some kind for helping out and storing our stuff.  Thank you two for helping out so much!

I received my wife's copy of the Power of Attorney today and found out about it after everyone had left.  With plenty of time left in the day, I hand delivered a copy to my realtor...if nothing else to get it out of the way.  I made dinner, and then went to the soccer game scheduled at the early time of 6:15pm.  We ended up losing 0 to 1, but I am okay with it.  We got scored on because we started taking more risks offensively, after playing the majority of the game over-defensively.  My team was openly impressed with my stamina and speed.  We'll see if that helps the team out in the near future.

I made a short video of the first floor in terms of how it looks with most things packed.  Sadly, the video is too long for this blog to accept.  I'll take pictures of the entire house after the movers load everything onto the truck tomorrow.  The house will be about as empty if not more so than when I first moved in with my personal items.  Now that the house is packed, I feel like life is truly in count-down mode for me until Germany.  There are few pieces of information left that I need to complete the trip to Germany.  Some of those include a flight date to Germany and whether I can temporarily store items at Fort Benning for purposes of shipping the car before leaving the country.

On the Georgia front, land navigation in teams was today.  My wife's team found 5 of the 8 items they were to locate in their time allotted.  While this was the requirement, they are being tested individually tomorrow.  Failure means a retake of the test until success is achieved.  I also learned that her training is officially done on the 16th of March.  While this is good information to have, she still needs to contact the Carlson Wagonlit  Transportation Office in Fort Benning to coordinate PCS travel to Germany.  I called them today and, while they were very nice and helpful, they told me upfront that they will only talk to service members and not any dependents.  This makes my situation almost completely dependent upon what information my wife gets and when regarding our flight out.  I'm choosing to make the POV shipment date dependent upon the flight date. I need the flight date so that I can appropriately get our dog's vet certificate signed within the required 10 day time frame for international travel.  It will be slim timing for me any way things get sliced.

I am still very glad that my wife and I met up in Chicago!  It was very much worth it!  We'll have to make an effort of planning a getaway at least once if not twice a year like that!  Attached are the extremely few pictures I took.  My wife took more, but I did not get copies of them.

Hard to read, but the gold lettered sign pictured reads, "Thou shall eat pizza - the 11th Commandment"


Below are pictures of my night flight out of Chicago.  The pilot flew us around the downtown area and Magnificent Mile.  I didn't notice until the pass was halfway done.  It was a really cool view.  While my camera didn't get a good resolution of it, the Navy Pier can be clearly seen on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Seeing the wife tomorrow in Chicago!

Today was busy.  I took Etsy to the vet to get set for travel to Germany.  Poor thing…at least 2 shots and her second microchip.  She did well.

I then went to work, got a high priority report done early, and got home early to get things set for HHG when I get back from Chicago.  I received copies of my power of attorney, so I gave a copy to my realtor right after work.

It was good I got out early because of all of the things I took care of: bathing Etsy (a condition by the dog-sitter), getting her and her kennel to the dog-sitter, getting the bed frame back at our house, giving away the last of the plants and the grow lights, gearing my dad up for monitoring the UB while I'm away, doing laundry for the last of the clothes to go to HHG, cleaning out containers in the kitchen for HHG, and copying the last files so that I can continue to work on taxes after the desktop gets taken...again for HHG.  I labelled everything for UB so it should go smoothly, especially considering that I'll be absent for that process.

Being that it’s about 9pm, I’m glad I got out of work 2 hours early! My flight leaves tomorrow at 6am, so my wonderful father offered to take me to the airport before then.

On the Georgia front...

There she is! This picture was taken yesterday, possibly before her 4 mile ruck march but certainly before she visited the Infantry Museum in Fort Benning.  Apparently, the museum has been significantly updated and is really nice.  She said it would easily take two days at least to see everything.  Today, she learned orienteering: using maps with a compass and protractor to navigate otherwise unknown terrain.  While she enjoyed it, she mentioned that she knew I would absolutely have loved it given my high interest in Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness travel.  

Tomorrow, we get to be with each other for the weekend in Chicago!  Yay!

Surveyor for the HHG

Today was busy but collected.

This morning's walk was nice.  I managed to get out right at sunrise.  It was also around 40 degrees all day so, afternoon clouds and light snow aside, it was a really nice day.

The mover's surveryor dropped by this morning to get an estimate of the boxes they would need for the HHG.  He made it sound like it would be a pretty simple job.  Also, I learned that the first day they catalog everything and give me a copy of the catalog when they leave the second day.  I also learned that only two guys will come in to catalog everything on Tuesday and there will be three guys to load the truck on Wednesday.  Sounds like things are coming together.  He commented that I seemed to be organized and things should go smoothly.  He also commented that it was a nice house and he would expect it to sell pretty quickly.  Little does he know about the short-sell process...

Work was more purposeful for me today.  Two people were out sick, so one woman had been managing the lab.  She did a pretty good job considering she had near zero help.

After work, I helped my dad move the queen size bed and boxspring back into the house for moving purposes.  My dad claims that he'll bring the frame and head board in on Friday.  My wife's parents will swing by on Tuesday, the HHG packing day.  Today, I completed organizing the UB items and my items to be held aside from UB and HHG.  I also cleared out all garbage in the house on the off chance that the movers would pack it as I heard rumors that they sometimes do.

Etsy has her vet appointment tomorrow morning to get the ISO chip and vaccination updates for travel to Germany.  Aside from the certificate to be signed 10 days before flying out, the dog should be good to go after  tomorrow!

I also transferred my existing tax information onto my laptop as my desktop that usually hold all of the tax information will be shipped with the HHG.  I'm very sure I can finish it all in early March.  I was just hoping that I would have had it all done by now for refund purposes.  Oh well, a forwarded address will have to do.  Speaking of which, I have to double-check with our sponsor to confirm our address in Germany.  For those of you not in-the-know, yes, I do like doing taxes.

I finished packing for Chicago today!  Very excited to see my wife there.  Just to add to the excitement, the weekend we are there is Chicago Restaurant Week!  There are special deals for a lot of the restaurants in town.  I found a website that lists them all.  Total bonus!

Word in Georgia is that an obstacle course that was supposed to be executed today got cancelled because it was under construction.  I'm guessing that training got bumped up a day until the construction is complete.  Other than that, her request for a pass for Chicago has been processed so now things are settled again.  Until further notice... :)

Turkeys!

Today was interesting.  On the way to work this morning, at a relatively busy intersestion, two turkey hens were on the sidewalk.  From a distance, I thought they were cranes!  They looked pretty lost.  My guess is they got there from the railroad track that was about a block away.  I'm not sure why they just didn't go back there, but it was definitely not a sight one sees every day in these parts.  I tried to take a picture, but the stoplight changed before I could get it.

Work was alright.  I had lunch with K-borg today.  Although he has to start looking for a new job in the next two months, he seemed the happiest I had seen him in a long time.  He told me he was dating a girl he met last year and he was really enjoying spending time with her.  I'm so happy for him.  I hope things continue to go well!

After work, I got into high productivity mode.  I had a power of attorney notarized and sent for selling the house while we're in Germany.  I got more organizing done for the UB move I will be absent for and packing for the remaining items I will keep after UB and HHG.  I also got a good start on taxes.

I've decided to start heavily monitoring what I use around the house these remaining several days before HHG, just to make sure that I have the bare bones of what I'll need when the house itself is bare.  Chicago will also be a good opportunity for me to assess whether I have all that I need.  I've got my accompanied items down to about three large luggage bags.  I just KNOW  that there will be more items than I realize, so I'm prepared for possibly having to pay for extra baggage on the Germany flight.

Etsy also seems to be in a higher energy state today.  Except for not pooping at all today, I'd say she's healthy again.  The one thing she is starting to do is groan and wag her tail expectantly.  I think she's begging for attention.  However, it's confusing because when I give it to her, she sits there or slightly avoids my petting her.  If I let her out, she sits at the steps.  She doesn't play when I offer.

Today, I decided to use the opportunity to train her.  She took to it very well, with treats of course.  I'm employing the retrieving method a hunting dog trainer at the state fair demonstrated this past fall.  It seemed to be a slightly new thing to her...the idea of retrieving more than one item.  However, she picked it up pretty quickly.  On an additional note, she goes straight to her kennel without me asking at bed time now.  This is uncharted territory for me.  I'm not used to having a dog that is willing to be trained.  I'm going to have to start getting creative.  She might be ready for the car key retrieval trick I've been thinking about!

On the Georgia front, they were supposed to learn how to handle firearms today...

There she is, all geared to go with her glasses!

Sadly, there was a problem with getting the ammunition on site, so none of them ended up firing any weapons at all :(  They were told that training got bumped up one day so that they can try it again in the future.  I hope so.  My lady sure likes her guns!

Green Mill, The Grey, and Groceries

Another crazy day today!

I slept in, walked the dog, went swimming for a half an hour, went to Green Mill with D-Rock, saw The Grey with D-Rock, mad some ground turkey and rice for the dog as she didn't eat breakfast this morning but only pooed once today, did some grocery shopping, and then chatted with the missus.

Swimming was nice.  I feel like I'm starting to get an efficient rhythm of movement in the water whereas up to this point I feel like I was just powering my way through.

Green Mill was awesome.  They have a deal right now...1 extra large two topping pizza and one appetizer for $20.00.  Very good value in my opinion.  I couldn't resist getting a chocolate chip cookie sundae before leaving.  Sooo goood!

D-Rock's in the throws of getting ready for marriage on the first of June.  Most of it sounds pretty normal.  Unique points of information are that he and his wife will be taking his mother in law's maiden name upon their marriage.  Also, because they are getting married in Germany, most if not all of his family will not attend the 4-day wedding festivities.  4 days?  Crazy!  Bummer about his family though.

The Grey was not that bad of a movie.  The ending was darker than I expected but probably closer to reality if you can get past the crazy killer wolves that were the antagonists.  I probably won't see it again, but Liam Neeson was definitely a good choice.  Rumor has it that Bradley Cooper was originally slated for the role but bowed out because of "scheduling conflicts" and Liam Neeson heard about it because he's pals with Cooper.  Cooper may have been able to pull it off, but Neeson's older and darker charisma worked better for the role than Cooper's younger and more suave aura would have.

I think the dog might be at a turning point with her health.  She didn't eat breakfast, but ate the turkey and rice meal I made for her.  She still walked well and only pooed once today...far better than the poo every other hour she was doing earlier.  She also seemed a lot more spunky several hours after the rice meal.  We played fetch for the first time in days.  If she's still bad tomorrow, I'll take her to the vet.  The other thought that crossed my mind is possible stress from the move.  I don't think that's what this is, but that will be my explanation if a vet visit occurs and turns up nothing.

Grocery shopping was, well, grocery shopping.  I got more of those buffalo tenders.  I just can't turn away.  However, I'll definitely have to ration them because my body can only take so many of those in one sitting:)

On the Georgia front, there was continued R & R in Atlanta and they watched The Vow.  Obviously a source of tears.  Based upon the previews, there's no way I would watch that movie with the wife not around.  I don't think I could handle it.  I'm glad we'll be seeing each other soon!

Poo, packing, and a blucy!

What a crazy day!  First off, I only got sleep every two hours this morning because the dog had to keep going out.  She has had diarrhea all day today.  I think it's from the greasy bone that she went crazy over the other day.  The poor thing has been paying the price for it all day.  The good news out of all this is that I don't think she's plugged up and she has still been eating normally.  The bad news is if she's like this all day tomorrow, I'll have to take her to the vet as I don't want her to get dehydrated.  Right now, she's chewing on a raw hide, which is very healthy and normal behavior for her.  I'm hoping the worst has passed...um, no pun intended...or I guess, sure!  Pun intended.

After discussing with my wife about it, I decided to switch the flight time back to the morning to Chicago.  It helped a great deal that my dad will be available and is willing to help out with the UB move in my absence.  It shouldn't only last that morning, and I'm thinking I'll move all of the UB items in one spot so it's difficult to screw it up.  Now, all I have to do is check with the movers to make sure that it is ok for him to be present instead of myself.

Because of the lack of sleep I got last night, I crashed on the couch from about 9am to 2pm.  I'll take it where I can get it.  Good thing it's Saturday.

After that, I spent the rest of the day organizing my post-UB and HHG moving clothes and gear.  It will definitely take me a few days to make sure I have everything I need and can pack it all.  It will be all I'll have except for the dog for a solid 3 weeks for sure, possibly more.  I also finished taking pictures of the tools to be shipped.  I have surprisingly few when the big items that are not going to Germany are factored out.

A word to multitaskers...do not use a cell phone, hold a dog on a lease, and clean up poo all at the same time.  I dropped my phone right into the dog poo I was trying to clean up.  It was not pretty.  Because there was dried grass exposed due to the lack of snow, mother nature helped to clean it up pretty well, and it didn't smell after I did that.  However, I did clean the entire surface with rubbing alcohol when I got home.

I then went to talk to our realtor regarding an offer we received for the house.  I learned a few things.  First, the buyer did not seem aware of the multi-month wait process involved with short-sales.  Once we make sure the buyer is aware of this, we'll see if the offer magically disappears.  Second, the bank has the final say on what it feels the property should sell for.  It's kindof hilarious to even have a price posted because no matter what we list it as and what the buyer offers, the bank decides what the house is worth in the end.  So, considering that the offer is not too far off of the present going price, we'll see what the bank says about it and let them be the bearer of bad news if they decide it is too far off.  Third, now that we are working on an offer, it will be reflected on the listing, so our realtor said to expect a huge drop in showings as most people don't bother looking at a house that has an offer on it.  I hope it all goes well.

Then, I created a masterpiece 1 pound turkey meat blue cheese juicy lucy burger (aka "blucy") with bacon inside too.  Oh wow!  Was that good!  I have decided that high quality blue cheese makes all the difference with a blucy.  Pomegranate Crystal Light is the nectar of the diabetic gods, by the way.

As for news on the Georgia front, my lovely wife visited the Coca-Cola factory today and very much enjoyed it.  It was followed by a dinner out with friends as well.  The lack of her own car over there is cramping her style a little as the base is HUGE, but she's making the best of it.  We're both very much looking forward to seeing each other again in Chicago.  It may be cold there this time of year, but there's always lot's to do in Chicago.  We're both very excited!

And now back to the hurry-up stage...

Wow!  The hurry up stage has arrived!

After work yesterday, I received unconfirmed dates for the HHG (household goods) and UB (unaccompanied baggage) moves to Germany.  Those dates are the 17th and the 21-22nd of this month!  This was nice information to get as it helped everything seem a lot more real, but it sadly directly conflicted with my flight to Chicago that my lovely wife scheduled for me not 24 hours earlier.

I didn't put two and two together until this morning.  I immediately called the airline to see if I could reschedule for a later flight.  I also got contacted by the HHG movers, based in Chicago coincidentally, who were calling to confirm the 21st and 22nd move dates.  However, I really needed the UB confirmed so that I could reschedule the tickets, so I proactively got their information through the moving coordinator and contacted them to get a confirmation.  After I got that, I contacted the airline and rescheduled my flight...sadly to the evening.  We will unfortunately lose most of the Friday together in Chicago, but the moves are now set to go!  Wow, that's going to be a very busy weekend for me...17th-UB and Chicago, 18th-Chicago, 19th-Chicago, 20th-Chicago, 21st-HHG, 22nd-HHG.  On top of that, I had to cancel a regularly scheduled singing weekend.

I would also not be surprised if someone wants to schedule a showing for the house that week, simply because everything else under the sun in happening :)

When it rains, it pours.

My new task is to get my accompanied baggage put together.  The trip to Chicago is a perfect excuse to help me sort out what to keep.  I have to sort out what will hold me over until I move to germany.

Oy!  AND once all of that is sorted out, I have to immediately rotate on to getting taxes, the car, med stuff, and the dog sorted out.  The dog's items are almost completely taken care of.  The car items are in line.  I just have to know when to bring the car to port.  The med stuff is in order, I just need to call about not switching you to Tricare standard and select a german endocrinologist.  Taxes...well, I haven't had a chance to start much beyone organizing the relevant paperwork.  I should have time to do that between now and when I leave.

I was going to work on some genealogy stuff last night after going for a jog, but the jog pretty much wore out all productive momentum I had.  I didn't expect to get so tired from it.  It's good in the long run, but for the present it sure did a number on me.  I am more excited about my genealogy project, though.  I've been learning how to create and use databases, which would be a good medium for the project.

I also heard a rumor yesterday about who will be replacing me as QA Director.  It was an expected move, but one co-worker stated, "we'll be starting all over again."

On a final note, I gave Etsy the big cow hip bone that we got from Petsmart a long time ago.  She was one happy dog last night:)  I'll post a video of one brief moment of it as soon as I can.

Little here, little there...

Today was a slow day at work.  I tuned up some procedures, then got a report that took me to the end of the work day to complete.  

I was eager to get home because Etsy was kenneled up during the day for the first time by me.  I did it because of the two showings of the house today.  I heard nothing, so I'm guessing she wasn't too horrible.  She was actually very quiet when I got home, so I'm guessing she was the same way with the visitors.  Needless to say, she was very happy to see me.

In other news, I found out today that one of our women soccer players who got injured last night actually fractured one of the small bones in her foot.  It was weird reading that because she came off the field as if it was just a little twang of the ankle, but I do remember her putting her jacket on right after getting off the field.  We were only about 10 minutes into the game, which is why I remembered.  It's a bummer for her and the team.  It was definitely a game of a few bonks here and there.  My neck is a little stiff from it today.

In an effort to get some serious military paperwork done tonight, I made the executive decision to snag a Little Caeser's pizza and then snap to it.  While I did get it done, was a tiny bit overwhelming and frustrating.  The two parties that needed the paperwork were looking for almost exactly the same paperwork, only neither of them seemed to know that.  What made it worse was our fault because they each had a different copy of some of the same forms that we gave them!  Hopefully, this will be the last of it for the moving paperwork, but then again, I often think too wishfully:)

Word on the Benning front is that most of the recent arrivals are overwhelmed with the change of pace in training.  It makes sense to me in that they are all bunking this time where as all the way up to this point they all had their own rooms.  I can imagine that for people who've never had to share a room, this is a very significant change indeed.  Also, they spent the past several months in a classroom setting of which they were all comfortable.  Now, they are doing everything in a simulated field environment which I am sure is outside of the comfort zone of the direct commissioned officers.  I heard rumors that they might be mixed with some enlisted soldiers during their training as well.  I'm curious to know how that will go.

It's official.  We're going to catch each other in Chicago for President's day weekend!  She gets her only four day weekend at that time, and so it will be our little Valentine's Day getaway.  It will be nice going back to Chicago.  So many good memories there.  We had our honeymoon there not even a year ago.  Chicago is starting to become our home away from home:)  A special thanks to all those who helped me reschedule or look after a few things while we're there.  I hope to have lots of pictures to share as a reward!

Lots of good things...

Today had lots of positive news.  I ate half of a pizza at work.  I finally donated our old TV.  We had our first soccer team win today.  I played soccer well today.  I was told repeatedly that I'm "good at defense."  I had a juicy lucy at none other than the famous local Blue Door.  I received news that not one but two showings are scheduled for the house tomorrow.  I cleaned the house in response to that.  I finished taking pictures of everything to be shipped to Germany except for my tools.  And finally, Jill decided to book a long weekend for both of us in Chicago in mid-February.

Definitely a good day today.  It makes sense, considering it's 2/7/12 and "27" is the Huber magic number (my mom's side of the family).  I say "magic" and not "lucky" because sometimes those big events can be deaths.  It's still magical though when you consider that so much happens for that side of the family on only 12 of the 365 or 6 days of the year.

By the way, it's a leap year this year!  I'll have to plan something special for that bonus day.  Maybe I'll eat at a really good restaurant or bar or something.  I'll have to make it a special-social-something.  It only happens once every four years!

I'm still working on finishing up details for transporting the dog to Germany.  Boy, will that saga ever end!  I just want to know what they mean by a "non-skid mat."  I could use my imagination, but I'd rather get it right the first time instead of risk not taking the dog with us.  I can't complain too much though.  I found out today that transporting a pet is a privilege only reserved for those going though a permanent change of station (PCS).  So, they are being nice to us as it is.

It seems like every time I get the right contact information for any military office, it ends up being a dead end or the wrong department.  One thing I have learned about the army and it's vast number of offices is that their emails and phone numbers have about a 30% chance of not working.  It think this is in part to the DoD security they have on their emails and me being a civilian, but I also think it's in part to the rapid department change-ups they go through to keep up with continuously changing policies required by the government.  Jill's right: there really does seem to be an office for every little item that can be done with the military.  I suppose when you consider there are probably 1 million or more total US army soldiers, not including veterans or dependents, one would have to have tons of offices to handle the sheer volume.

Interesting side note about the sudden interest in the house.  My realtor mentioned to me that she couldn't figure out why no one wanted to look at the house.  She knew of at least one other house that was almost the same as ours and in the exact same neighborhood that was getting tons of visits.  She noticed that suddenly after we dropped the price as scheduled, we had people wanting to see the house.  She figures we're starting to hit the sweet spot in pricing.  Now that we're more in the game, I'm curious to see how the next two weeks will pan out as far as selling the house goes.

Ok.  Bed time.  Very much looking forward to the adventures tomorrow may hold.

Swimmin' and textin'

Today was interesting...

My wife started processing today at Fort Benning.  Her first PT test at Fort Benning is tomorrow, so she's a little nervous about it.  Here's hoping she does well.  I'm quite confident she will.  She passed her last PT test with flying colors, and that was only about a week ago.  I'm sure she can do it again.

Officer's rooms in barracks are very different from enlisted soldiers.  They have four wall rooms with only one bunk in each room.  It's utilitarian in style, but definitely has the look of a college dorm room.  My wife got roomed with a friend of hers, so that should make the time go by well too.

Along with other things, she got three bags of gear at Fort Benning today!  Here's a picture she provided...

Sounds like training will be every bit as intense as they claim it will.

In other news, I finally donated a full black garbage bag of clothing to Goodwill.  I hope to have at least two more loads in the very near future.  The less around the house, the better.

Learning moment for me...if you can't turn your key in your car ignition, turning the steering wheel or pulling the steering wheel away from the ignition allows one to turn the key freely.  Maybe my Mazda was just too nice of a car, but I've never heard of this until now...when I have problems with it and suddenly everyone else has heard of it too.  Is this just a recent development in car making?  Is this possibly related to the introduction of telescopic steering wheels?

Finally, at work, I taught myself the basics of database generation.  While it would come very handy at work to implement, I can also use the knowledge for my genealogy project.  I've been trying to figure out the best means of executing this on a database, and I got a really good start today.  I just need more time with it.  I initially started with Microsoft Access 2003, but decided on OpenOffice 3 because it's freeware, they have tutorials online, it handles a little easier, and it would be much easier to distribute the information to other interested parties without having to ask them to spend tons on money.

I got a good amount of swimming in, so I'm feeling pretty good.  The next book I'm going to read is Game of Thrones by George R R Martin.  Really liked the HBO series, so I'm expecting the book to be even better.

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Ironically, I've taken tons of pictures but really have none to share.  After church, walking the dog, and going for my first jog in ages, I took pictures of about 1/2 to 2/3's of the items in the house that are going to be shipped to Germany.  My wife and I agreed that in the interest of time, taking pictures should be the first focus, then using them to catalog everything later.  I have one more load of laundry to shoot and my tools to be brought.  The rest is taken care of.  It's also been proving a great opportunity to get rid of the clothes that I really don't wear anymore.  Because my wife loves getting me new clothing, as I rarely buy any myself, I'm finding that I have a lot more to get rid of then I realized.

Being that the Super Bowl was today, and I really had no interest in or time to watch it, I discovered the Animal Planet Puppy Bowl.  Very cute!  I highly recommend it to any pet owner.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, you can see one of my more favorite clips on my wall.

The big move is only two or three weeks away now!  We still need to square away the finishing touches on the paperwork so that we can get an actual date, but my focus is now going into game mode as there is little time remaining before the bulk of the house disappears.  Sometime this week, I'll organize what I will be keeping with me for baggage on the flight...the absolute bare essentials that I will live with for the month or so after the big move but before the flight to Germany.

The next items on the list to focus on are finishing POV paperwork, finishing Etsy's shipping paperwork, and then sorting out the situation with taxes (do I file myself or do I cave in and resign to TurboTax).  The house, well, is what it is.  The short-sale is still producing little interest, but it will sell eventually, one way or another. I also have a potential substitute for my singing job at St. Casimir's...my sister.  She fits the profile of the kind of replacement they are looking for and she is interested in the opportunity.

Correspondence with my German friends has been proving very helpful.  They have been so helpful, caring, and excited for us to come over.  I've learned everything I need to know about the power differences in Europe so I know what electronics to worry about.  We no longer have to worry about the canoe.  It sounds like the environment for the dog should work out pretty well.  I'm slowly learning conversational German.  I'm just finding in general that people are genuinely good and honest people.  People like to help out and care for others.  I'm very excited to move to Germany.  Things are going well.

Back from lovely graduation visit in Charlottesville

I haven't posted since Monday because I've been out of town since Tuesday and took Friday to regroup.

Although not the nice picture with them in their Class A or B uniforms, here is the class with whom she graduated.  FYI, you can only view this picture if you are logged into Facebook and are friends with my wife on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=620055966127&set=t.67700060&type=3

On Tuesday, I flew down to Charlottesville via Philadelphia with US Airways.  Both flights arrived early.  The second flight was practically empty!  Here's the video I took to prove it.

Upon arrival in Charlottesville, I took a cab that got me to TJAGLCS (the US Army Judge Advocate Law School).  No sooner do I get to my wife's room, then she shows up.  Their class got done early that day.  Talk about incredible timing the entire day!  Even further, it was 67 degrees in C-ville!  Needless to say, we wandered outdoors for the rest of the day and went out for lunch.

Sadly, we could not have dinner together that night as she had a ceremonial dining in with her classmates and superiors.  Instead, I wandered outside and read the book "The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Tomason.  Before I get to the book, here are two pictures I took wandering campus.

Ok, I can't seem to rotate this picture right now, but if anyone can identify this tree, I would be grateful.  There are a handful of them in Charlottesville, but you don't see them in MSP.

Here's a picture of the University of Virginia Law School courtyard.  A lot of Charlottesville is like this, with lots of red brick and white trim.  As you can see, it truly was a gorgeous day.

Oddly written book.  Great ideas using an old mysterious text and decoding it over the course of the book and how that impacts the main character's relationships with his friends and significant other.  In the end, I liked the ideas that were in it, but I really did not like how it was put together and how it ended.  It stabbed the romantic in me.  Without giving away the book, I didn't like how the relationship between the main character and his girlfriend ended.  If destiny at any cost was the message, I guess I can get there.  If the ability to change oneself was the message, then I say the book failed.  The book was also clearly written by two authors who didn't bother to work as a team to blend their sides of the story.  It made for a choppy read.  It's really too bad, because the ideas and a lot of the events in the book were really good.  I probably would read a book written by either one of the authors again, but not written by both of them.  If you're really adventurous, the book reads like it's encoded like the text that is the subject of the story.  I might get to it.  I'll post if I do.

Wednesday, my wife had class for the first half of the day.  It was, again, gorgeous outside.  Unfortunately, I slept in for most of the morning, so I waited for her to get done with class, and then we met up with her parents who arrived shortly after that.  We went shopping first.  Her parents purchased us two IPod Touches!  We heard rumors that WIFI is more available in Europe than cell phone zones.  Our game plan is to use them in lieu of cell phones and "FaceTime" ourselves and acquaintences overseas.  This is also a plus for you blogger viewers because I tested it at home today against my cell phone and below are the results.  Clearly, I will use it for better resolution pictures and video in the future.

From the LG Octane cell phone...

From the IPod Touch

Here's a picture of my lovely wife learning how to use her new IPod Touch.  Yes, I very much caught her off guard.

As an aside, we learned that public WIFI routers can have filters on them for the purpose of restricting bandwidth draw from devices that have high demands.  The TJAGLCS has a filter on a LOT of items including FaceTime, so we couldn't get them to work in her room.  The Geek Squad guy at Best Buy noted that Best Buy's WIFI puts a filter on Google related accounts.  He also noted that some public zones do truly have unlimited access, but it's usually the smaller ones.  Good information to know.  I also learned that you have to select the WIFI you use before you can use FaceTime.  Hopefully, I can figure out how to let the device do it automatically, but for now it will be an extra step.

That evening, we had dinner together at a restaurant on the downtown walking-only street mall at Fellini's Number 9.  Really good food and the waitress was awesome and energized.  I couldn't help but have two desserts.  Sadly, I couldn't completely finish them.  Trout, broccoli, asparagus, potatoes, ravioli, cheese cake, carrot cake...and that's just what I had!  Highly recommend it for anyone visiting C-ville.  Later on that night, we chatted with one of her classmates who will be stationed with us in Germany.  It's always good to know there will be a familiar face there, and he will supposedly get stationed in the same office as my wife, so she'll have a classmate/work buddy there which should help too.

Thursday, I did some PT (physical training) with my wife and a friend of hers.  We were going to run for several miles, but it was around 40 degrees and raining, so we opted for pushups and situps instead.  We then cleaned ourselves up and went to Graduation in the morning.  Again, I took pictures, but neglected to take them with my own camera.  It was pretty neat!  Almost no one was from Charlottesville, there were a few very high ranking officers (one vice admiral from the coast guard, the assistant Judge Advocate General, a full-bird colonel, a first sergeant, and at least one other very highly decorated officer) not to mention all of the students were at least first lieutenants and some of the students were captains and even majors.  Afterward, it was, of course, gorgeous and sunny again.  We went to lunch at Michie's Tavern just outside of the Thomas Jefferson Monticello.  Decent food.  We then explored the nearby gift store.  There are some really cool trinkets there!  It took some will power not to buy one of the pocket watches they had on display.

We then got back, I finished up packing (my flight was scheduled for 8pm) and got a trailer for my wife's car.  It had been slowly dying for the past year.  Figures at class, when we were going to trade it in for our recently purchased new car, it completely dies.  As a side tangent, it might not be completely dead, but we've given up on investing any more into it.  It was a bit of a homeric effort to get the trailer rigged up because the lights wouldn't work.  Using jumper cables, we figured out it was a grounding problem.  We then waited for the owner to come by and wire a different ground to it.  Once we started working on moving the car, the battery was not charged enough to start the car, but there was enough to run the power steering.  We decided to push the car, which was interesting given the slightly hilly terrain.  We encountered problems getting up the trailer ramp when another friendly young man eagerly offered to help.  The three of us (me, my father-in-law, and this friendly guy) managed to get it on the trailer after four tries.  We thanked him, and after he left my wife woke up from her nap in the truck, saw him walk away, and told us that he is also getting stationed in Germany although in a different region.  What a coincidence!

We then had dinner at AppleBee's and I went to the airport.  Nope, the visit doesn't end there!

At the airport, we, the passengers, get on the tarmac, close up the plane, and then get an announcement from the pilot.  The pilot's computer shut down and he was trying to get it to reboot.  Coincidentally, the man sitting next to me was a pilot for the same airline.  He said that the situation was not good and would likely result in grounding the plane.  This was bad for him because he was starting his vacation today and he was hoping to catch up with his wife, also a pilot, on the east coast and they would catch a flight tomorrow morning for Cambodia.  He also told me that this was the last flight out of Charlottesville, so grounding meant no one getting out until tomorrow morning at 5:30am or so.

The flight was grounded, I got to meet a lot of people I ordinarily would not have met (a couple in town for a wake trying to get back to Nashville, three college students trying to get to DC for job interviews, three people also in town from Nashville, the pilot mentioned earlier, a taxi driver who moved to Charlottesville because his wife had triplets, another taxi driver who was an Indianapolis Colts fan, and a couple of crabby women), and I also got to spend another night with my wife!  I also only got 4 hours of sleep due to the sudden wave of accomodations the understaffed airport had to handle.  During that wait, I entertained myself with TSA regulations...

Friday morning, I was found by two different women (one of them one of the crabby women I met the night before) who recognized me from yesterday's debacle.  We coordinated together to make sure we got on the right flights as our first flight was surprisingly not advertized on the departure boards at the airport.  The flight went well.  The crabby lady tried to be friends with me for some reason.  I think she was a little exhausted from the ordeal.  I was polite, but honestly don't want to be associated with a crabby person if I can avoid it.  I got to see the sunrise at Dulles airport.  I was hoping to see it when we were in the sky, but we landed early, so I had to settle for the airport instead...

I finally got back to MSP.  On the flight there, I was surrounded by six or seven women who only spoke what I thought was Russian.  Even better, they didn't understand English.  I felt like I was in Europe :)  The other funny thing was that MSP was completely covered in low clouds and 30F with fog...stark contrast from the east coast.  I decided to eat at the airport before going to work, as I hadn't eaten in over 12 hours. I asked the information booth about a good restaurant in the airport.  He directed me to something really cool!  Check it out!

Perhaps I was needlessly entertained, but I thought it was way cool!

I then ate at Ike's restaurant, had the awesomest vanilla malt on the planet, and a great burger too, served by one of the better waitresses I've had in a while, and proceeded to go to work for about four hours.  I then had a large dinner with my good friend K-Borg.  He chose to take a picture of himself using my new IPod Touch.

I'm not quite sure what he was thinking about at the time he took this picture, but he does seem quite sure of himself.

Today, well, I'm still catching up on packing out.  I've got taxes, PCS (Permanent Change of Station), and moving the dog to sort out still.  I also have to sing tonight, so my entire afternoon is pretty much shot.  Sad news: the military (or the contract mover for the military, don't know which it is) will not transport a canoe longer than 14 feet.  I find it funny because I don't know of many canoes short than 16 feet, but I know they do exist.  Either way, I guess I'll have to focus and either buying or building a sailboat while I'm there instead :)  Could get dangerous.  Off to the rest of the day!