Car?

Today started as mostly recuperation. I read for about 2 hours, decided to bake a batch of crazy sweet cookies,

then proceeded to siesta with the dogs for around 2 hours. Here's a picture of Buster crashing next to me. Seriously, doesn't he look like something out of Star Wars?

I then chatted with J via FaceTime. She's looking into getting a car from the military used car lot. Unfortunately, she cannot wait the 3 weeks necessary for our car to arrive. Her boss pretty much told her that she needs to have a car by the end of next week. With the cost of car rental being so high in Germany, it's about as much to simply buy an old one. She's currently looking at BMW's and VW's, not surprisingly. She also saw a car that was in a John Patrick Dempsey movie from the 80's, but could get it because she can't drive manual transmissions yet. We'll see if we can change that:)

All else aside, she may be moving into the town home as soon as the 6th! Crazy times!

Taxes

I filed and mailed my taxes today. Yay! Aside from three addition errors, I had all the numbers and equations in the right places. Maybe I'll take up being a CPA as a second job.

I also bought a beard trimmer. It worked so nicely! I don't know how I got by so long without one! I figure I'll be spending a lot of time with officers soon. I may as well work on keeping my appearance in good condition.

J got the town home she was interested in. I cannot pass judgment as to whether I like it or not because the pictures online are only of the front yard and front rooms which account for only a third of the house. The pictures I have seen are exactly as a little stretch of European suburbia looks like. I'll get a picture on here of it as soon as I can. I'm very much looking forward to the fenced back yard for Etsy to romp in!

J got an iPhone today so she can call people. It's on an international plan with no added cost to stateside calls. Texting might cost extra. It's on a T- mobile sister company, so there may be some stateside equivalence.

We found that our Garmin won't work in Germany without an additional download, which we may entertain. It would be cheaper than buying another Garmin from what we can tell. J was flat out told by her boss that she needs to get a car ASAP, so she's currently tossing the differences between leasing and buying. We need to be careful about finances until Monday, when her next paycheck comes in. She spent a good sum of money for simply getting to Germany from Indiana. That and the debt from the short sale will make things interesting for the next day or two. The financial support from the army is more than sufficient, it's just a matter of timing and notifying the right people.

I had dinner with J's brother T tonight and learned we have a surprising amount in common: taste in movies, interests in science, preferences in food, have significant others (wife in my case) very much out of town for a good stretch expecting career changes in the horizon... It was wonderful food and conversation. Hopefully, we can do it again before I leave.

The dogs were a little out of sorts because of an hour-long thunderstorm that swept through, but outside of that, things were under control. I also saw my first indiana bluebird this afternoon.

New house?

My morning was spent getting an international driver's permit from AAA and making copies of taxes followed by being stuck in traffic for an extra 30 minutes.

My afternoon was spent grilling hot dogs and tilling the garden. The rhubarb is budding from the ground and the strawberries are already blossoming!

Poor J is sick with some kind of cold. We think it's a combination of no recuperation from jet lag and being in a new country. After her in- processing today, she apparently has the townhouse she liked in line for us pending some finances from the army. It has a fenced in yard for Etsy, is 1/2 mile from the train, and is approximately 10 minutes of driving from her job. It also has several stories and at least 4 bedrooms. Bear in mind that closets don't typically come with homes, so one of those rooms may be simply for clothes:)

I was reminded of how the APO system works again. Since we already have one, we can have things shipped to us on Germany already! I'll have to tell our relatives what our APO is.

I also learned that we need pet insurance for Etsy. This is a new one. I'm beginning to feel like Germans don't like dogs very much: restricted breeds for importation, required pet insurance, very certain places where the kennel may be placed, a no barking ordinance... The latter could prove to be a challenge.

As an aside, I'm finding my iPod to be quite handy for blog posts lately as opposed to using my laptop. I'll have to keep it with me more frequently for pictures and videos. The added bonus is that the resolution of said media will be much better than from my phone.

Again and again

Today, I went to atterbury again only to find out that pretty much everything is done via computer now. They did give me a couple of pointers, but I left a little disappointed as I wanted to file without a program. In the end, the program pointed out three errors I had in my own program. Not too bad for a first try. Tomorrow, all but property taxes will be done.

While partying with the dogs outside, I chatted with J via FaceTime. She met several new people today including a few nice German lawyers. She also relayed some information regarding pet travel. This afternoon, she was looking through houses for us. The army provides a rent and utilities stipend for us. House rent is easily 50% more expensive there and roughly twice as expensive for utilities. Knowing how water is at a premium in Germany, perhaps making some rain barrels would be a good idea. On the plus side, all the recommended housing she looked at was easily twice or more larger than our previous house (well, it's still pending closing). Several of the houses boast "winter gardens" which I take to mean small greenhouses. If that's true, I'll be a very happy man in Germany.

J is continuing to enjoy herself there and is glad we are traveling separately. Apparently, until processing is done, I would be restricted largely to the hotel.

As per her suggestion, I double-checked about a military vet for getting the certification for etsy. On accident, I found that the certificate format changed unexpectedly this month. After a small panic attack, I found that my having taken etsy to the bet earlier was a good things. I continue as planned except now I have to get the certificate reviewed by the USDA for whatever reason right after I get it signed.

One last quirk. Apparently one gets a national driver's license and an international driver's license in Europe. J told me that it is supposedly easier to take care of the international one before moving over, which she failed to do. I'm going to see if the local license place will do international licenses tomorrow.

This post's picture is Buster sleeping behind me with his head on my shoulder. I swear he looks like an unhooded ewok from star wars.

Change in schedule

To be completed...

Spent two hours on the road today because of an unknown change in schedule by tax volunteers.

Also spent another hour sorting out a change in pet transport protocol that just happened in the past three weeks.

Got a small sunburn mowing the lawn today.

My sleep schedule has also changed to earlier hours due to pet and chicken care.

An added bonus: I finally got to see jupiter's moons again tonight, albeit for a few brief seconds.

J arrived without a hitch. She likes her sponsor very much. She'll be in a hotel room until she picks out a house for us. The army with sponsor it as she is an officer and it is our best option in terms of also having a dog and no available on post housing. She is a bit jet lagged, but not too badly. She now may have a month of in-processing instead of the anticipated 10 days. Further, I may have a similar amount of in- processing as well! Oh boy!

Catching up to do...

Today is the big day for J.  She flies to Germany overnight tonight and arrives tomorrow morning!  Thus far, she says things have been going very well in terms of travel and it all feels a little surreal.

I have been pretty bad with posting lately as J and I spent all the time we could together.  After today, we don't see each other again for another three weeks.  After that, we hope to finally see each other again on a daily basis.  Sounds weird to say, but that's how training is when your spouse is in the military.

Below are my catch up posts for the past several days...

3/21/11

I tried my hand tilling the garden C and R have.  I actually did not have a hard time with it.  During the week I have the farm to myself, I'll see if I can till the whole thing and maybe plan out this season's crop layout.  I'll figure out what is being planted and go from there.

3/23/11

Yesterday night we saw Hunger Games on opening night.  Not that bad of a flick.  Made me want to get into bow and arrow again.  The only issue I have is that if they do make a sequel, there is no way it will be anything like the first movie simply by design.

Today, we had brunch with T and J at Flap Jacks.  They had pretty good pancakes and omelets.  I would definitely recommend it to pancake lovers.  Later on, I sorted out a bunch of paperwork and bills, and had dinner with J's close friend D at an Indian restaurant in downtown Indianapolis.  Traffic was surprisingly light considering that the NCAA National tournament was going on.  I think the Sweet 16's were finishing up this night.

I also received a copy of my flight itinerary from J today.  It was nice to finally have time.  They also have a window of arrival with check-in instructions specified, so I'll need to make sure that I respect those instructions.

3/24/11

Today, I learned how to use the mower and feed the chickens.  I was actually surprised how easy it was to learn how.  It makes me think I could possibly have my own little farm some day.

I'll be dropping C and R off at the airport tomorrow morning for their trip to Cancun.  J is leaving for Germany on Monday, so we're going to have to make sure she's packed to specifications noted on the itinerary.  I get the farm to myself for almost a week, so it will be interesting to see how easily all of this will go for me.  

3/25/11

I dropped C and R off at the Indianapolis airport early this morning.  Today is also my last full day with my wife.  We decided to have lunch at Jaripeo’s.  We also took a walk through Hummel Park with Etsy.  

J packed her stuff for her flight tomorrow.  We got a little paranoid about packing restrictions, so we used a bathroom scale to make sure things were within weight restriction.  Also to aid in packing, we used vacuum bags for clothing (they really to decrease a lot of space!) and got a few luggage straps to keep her biggest duffle bag from bursting at the seams.  

We did this while watching the first three seasons of Survivor: One World.  For fans out there, was Jeff Probst sick or something?  He had a pretty gruff voice at one council and was not present for one of the challenges.  Also, wow!  Talk about gender roles!  So sad biker chick got her arm broken.  I was actually rooting for her!

We called the airline today to confirm J's flight.  It was a little confusing in that they stated "Space A starts at 1600," but her flight was scheduled for 1820.  If all else fails, she can always try a last minute change of flight to BWI airport, where she'll be flying out to Germany. 

My wife's brother T treated us to a pizza dinner tonight with J and my favorite toppings.  It was a very nice last dinner together in Indiana.

Tomorrow, I fly solo with 5 dogs, 4 cats, around 3 dozen chickens, and a grand little farm.  If I have time, maybe I’ll put together a small box from Rodney’s shop.   

3/26/11

I dropped J off at IND airport.  In a very pleasant surprise, her brother T was there waiting for us to send J off.  It was a very nice gesture.  We had breakfast together, and then parted ways.  My wife decided to take some American and Euro cash before leaving, just in case.  Hopefully, she won't run into too much trouble.

Last I heard, all of her baggage arrived at BWI intact and without incident.  She's already met a CID (military police officer) who will be in the building next to her on base.  She's happy about that because she will be working with a lot of CID personnel by simple nature of the work.  It's never too early to start building those relationships.  After her flight, it's doubtful her phone will work, so we'll be forced to communicate either via email, Skype, FaceTime, or instant message via iPod's.  I know...so few choices :P

I, after dropping my wife off, spent a good chunk of the day sleeping and getting a to-do list put together in a calendar.  The dogs have been a little jumpy today because their daily routine has been changed a little with their owners not being around for the past 24 hours.  Thus far, Hank has been the most anxious.  I'll let him out tonight to see if that eases him up a bit.  

I haven't figured dinner out yet, but I've got plenty to work with.  I also will be going to bed early tonight, as I will have to wake up early for the chickens and I also hope to get to a nearby Army Reserve base (called a "Camp") to take advantage of some free military tax advice they offer during tax season.  There are a surprising number of tax-exempt and tax-deductible items that I'm only just now starting to learn about (BAS and BAH, for example).

Red snapper!

Actually, pink snapper...but more on that later.

Two days ago, J and I went shopping for birthday items for J's sister JJ. We saw quite a few interesting items. I was particularly interested in some leather bound journals Barnes & Noble was selling. They were some great ideas for some future leather projects. We decided to see 21 Jump Street while we were at it. Surprisingly good movie! I was also pleased to find a fully blossomed daffodil at the farm.

Spring is in full force in Indianapolis.

Yesterday, J and I went shopping a little bit more. Yesterday was also J and my date night. We had a wonderful dinner at the Oceanaire in Indianapolis. I had a pink snapper and J had some serious salmon.

We then spent the night at the Old Northside Inn in the Bridal Room. Not a bad place.

Today, J and I had dinner with C, got some pet supplies for Etsy, made some cake for JJ's birthday today, celebrated JJ's birthday at the farm and had one of the chickens for dinner as well. It was good to visit with a good chunk of the family.

Just as a side note, I saw and took a picture of a small brown snake I saw on the farm. I'll have to ID it later.

Magnolias

Spent a good part of the day sleeping in. Like a dream, my wife snuck into our room in the middle of the night. We spent the morning with nieces J and A.  We read books and helped clean up sticks in the yard.

In the afternoon, we had to return my wife's rental car to the airport.  Heading out, C and R pointed out that the magnolia in their yard started to bloom.

C and R planted this in their yard in  remembrance of our wedding day.  They chose a magnolia because we lived on Magnolia Ave.  My wife and I always thought it was a shame that there were no magnolias on Magnolia Ave.  They are such pretty plants.   I hope to have one in my yard some day.

We dropped off my wife's rental car.  While waiting, I saw a F350 limousine!  Just when I thought a Humvee was the biggest limo I ever saw...

That evening, we went to a mexican restaurant.  Just leaving the farm, we saw six white tailed deer far out in the neighboring field.  The food was good, and in recognition of St. Patrick's Day, we got a couple of shamrock shakes from McDonald's.  We had to go to a second one because the first one we went to had run out!  It wasn't surprising because half of the clientele in that McDonald's was wearing green.

Right before bed, during a thunderstorm, we saw Notting Hill.  I actually missed the last 15 minutes of it or so because lightning flickered the power at the farm twice.  It didn't rain terribly.  Just enough to get the trees to sprout the next day.

Deer and my Dear

I got up at a more normal time this morning, and was greeted by two white tailed deer out in the next door field probably 200 or 300 yards out.  I only saw them because of their very slight movement and their very starkly white tails in a huge field of brown.  I tried to take a picture of them, but I doubt you can see them here.  They were straight out by the tree line.  I'm very sure they saw me before I saw them.

I was mostly lazy the rest of the morning.  By midday, I started picking up on activity.  I had a date to organize with my wife and a movie night with the family.  We're shooting for opening night of Hunger Games.  It definitely appears doable at this point, but getting reservations through the web site is proving frustrating.  I'll just have to call in tomorrow.

I walked Etsy around the farm today.  She was particularly interested in a few of the wood piles.  I later moved the kitties into my room.  It was also a good excuse to clean my room.  I pretty much threw things around willy-nilly when I got here and never actually cleaned things up.  Now that J is on her way here, it was another excuse to clean the room.

The kitties seem happy to have the company.  They've been their very social selves since I transferred them.

My wife J called and said that she had finally graduated from the last of her training, finished her room check out, and was already on the road to get back to Indiana.  So exciting!  I can't wait to see her!

On Etsy's second walk, I noticed a lot of waxy blue flowers that I swear were not there yesterday.  I think every other day, a different type of flower blooms just from the yard.  I think Spring has sprung in Indiana.

C and R invited me to have mexican food with nieces J and A.  I got to learn about J's day at kindergarten, and A discussed how people should always allow other people to finish their food...or something like that.  We also got to see 15 ranked Norfolk State defeat 2 ranked Missouri in one of the opening rounds of the NCAA Basketball Final Four tournament.

J and I talked on the phone for at least three hours during her travel back.  Due to getting stuck in traffic in Atlanta, she might not make it to Indiana tonight.  If I don't see her tonight, I'll see her tomorrow morning.  It was so nice to talk to her for such a long period of time.  I really look forward to seeing her soon.

Day of Variety

Today was a day of variety.

I brushed the dog with the furminator today.  We'll definitely need multiple sessions.

I worked on bills and a short to-do list for my wife today as well.  Once again, there are some things that only my wife can take care of, no matter how much I wish I could do it for her.

I then made dinner.  Using my wife's skills, I found a recipe online and made some quite good salmon with sweet and regular potatoes.  Using premade cookie dough, I made a large batch of oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert.  They were quite good too.  Eating here is great!  Lots of really good food, and my blood sugar levels are good every time!  Here is the link to the salmon recipe I used.  Very easy to make, pretty quick to make too, and very tasty!

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/parmesan-baked-salmon-75528.aspx

Parmesan Baked Salmon

 (507)

rate it now!

My wife and I started organizing a night out for us the week that she is in Indianapolis.  I've got the place to spend the night figured out.  Now, I just need to iron out dinner and the concert.  I've got ideas in mind, but I want to look into it a little more.

Finally, Etsy taste-tested a live chicken.  I took Etsy with me (on a leash) to the hen house because C seemed to be out a little longer than usual.  She was fine, and took the opportunity to see what Etsy would do with a chicken.  She held one close to her and moved toward Etsy slowly.  I held the leash firm in case she chose to jump at it, which she did.  She only did her nervous nibbling as she often does, but the first bite took a feather out from the neck.  The chicken was completely unfazed.  C laughed and said, "Well, we now know what she would do around chickens.  Some don't care, and some do."

Jupiter, Venus, and Mars teased me through the hazy night.  I still may have a chance to see them through the telescope in the next few days.  I certainly hope I do.

On the Georgia Front, my wife finished cleaning her room alone.  Apparently, her roommate chose to clean "her half" and then leave.  My wife and I seem to remember that in college room cleaning with a roommate was a team effort, but then everyone is different.  Anyhoo, she's done cleaning her room, has a car rented and loaded for the trip to Indiana, has graduation at 1300, and whenever she is allowed leave, she's off!  I'm very excited to see her again!

Recouperating

Pretty simple day.

I slept in.

After I got up and had some breakfast, I groomed Etsy in an effort to get some of her undercoat out.  The warmer weather is a little difficult for her on some of our walks.  While I could not find the Furminator S and K gave us, C showed me their own, so I'll use that tomorrow on Etsy.


Grace, the territorial, unpredictable, and elusive cat was surprisingly nice to me this morning.  I let her pet herself, effectively.  I didn't want to be deceived into thinking I could treat her like a normal cat.  For those who don't know this cat, she's pretty crabby.  Generally, if you leave her alone, she'll leave you alone.  She definitely has a personal space zone best not breached.  FYI, I was wearing shorts and squatting on the floor in this video.  Seeing it again, it surprisingly looks like I have no pants on.  I assure you this was not the case.

I also got a picture of the final cat: Barn Cat.  This is the sixth and final cat on the premises.  She also has it totally made: gets to go out whenever, gets let in whenever, gets to have adventure, gets to have a roof over her head, always has a meal, gets to be petted whenever...pretty much all the perks and all the freedom.  If I was ever reincarnated into an animal, I would want that cat's life.

Did more moving paperwork...it never seems to end.  I'll have bills to go through tomorrow.

We found the telescope and tripod today.  We were only able to test it out today, as there was cloud cover periodically tonight.  There are still a few more chances to look at those planets again in the next several days.

I was introduced to the night golf ball.  It glows when hit hard.  I had never encountered that technology before: energy of mechanical force stored and slowly released in the form of light.  Pretty cool!  It also means that you would get to see the lit ball fly through the air at night after hitting it.  I'm pretty excited to try it sometime.

I had a really big spaghetti dinner tonight that C generously made.  I also fed the dogs and cats for the first time today.  I neglected to add eggs to the dog food, so they didn't eat much until that was added.  I'll remember that next time.

I did go through a little german today, but I ended up taking a siesta for a few hours this afternoon.  I was really not very productive today.  Tomorow, I plan on hitting the german a little harder.

On the Georgia Front, my wife spent most of today waiting around to file paperwork.  She got to turn in her training gear today, so that was a good weight off of her shoulders.  She was sad to see that rifle go, though. Here she is getting ready to turn in her gear (in a bag on her lap in front of her).

PT has been cancelled tomorrow due to weather, so she gets to do more PT on her own.  Just a few more days, and we get to see each other again!

Stargazing

Had a good afternoon and evening at the farm.

C and R got a 4 camera with night vision security system for the chickens.  They've had issues loving birds to predators in the past.  I get to help put it together, so this could be a fun project:)

R also made dinner.  We had burgers, corn, and "breakfast" potatoes.  It was pretty good.  The burgers were a beef and turkey mix with onions and bread crumbs also mixed into the meat.  I was afraid I overcooked them on the grill, but they turned out tasty.

We then watched an episode of R's favorite show: NCIS.

After that, we somehow wound up stargazing.  The conditions were perfect for the time of year: high 60's, no bugs, clear skies, and Mars, Venus, and Jupiter, and even Orion in excellent viewing range.  R pulled out his high-powered binoculars and we were able to make out 3 of Jupiter's four brightest moons!  That is something I've never seen before!  We also saw some of the star clusters in Orion.  When it came to focusing the binoculars, I've learned that R has a far steadier hand than I.

Below are my attempts at taking pictures of the planets.  This is Venus (visible) and Jupiter (not visible).

This was supposed to be Mars.

This was Jupiter through the binoculars.  We were also able to see three moons trailing 11 o'clock from it..

We pulled this from the web.  Based upon the positions, we saw Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa.  Io was way too close to Jupiter for us to discern.

There are rumors of a telescope lying around at the farm.  I may see if I can dig it up and maybe get better pictures.  I'll also use the iPod for pictures next time, as its resolution is higher than my cell phone.


Etsy is starting to settle into the ranks of the other dogs.  She's currently in the middle, above Henry and Buster, but below Carl and Hank.  Tonight, she was doing light tug of war with Hank, so they might be on better terms at the moment.  The cats are also doing well.  I played with and held them some more today.  They are doing fine.

On the Georgia Front, she is handing in her gear and her rifle tomorrow.  She's actually sad to turn in her rifle.  She's told me they had some good times on the range.  Her left foot is a tad sore from the marching they did today...I think it was two miles.  Her roommate is sleeping in a hotel off-base, which I forgot was allowed, it's just that you have to pay out of pocket for it.  It being their last week, a lot of people are getting squirrelly, which is normal for the last week of a 6 month training.  As a result, they are being put into morning formation earlier and having to stay out later.  She's almost done!  I'm looking forward to seeing her again!

She also now has an itinerary for when she arrives in Germany.  So I'm sure she's feeling better about that.  She also has flights figured out for getting to Indiana after training.  Things are gradually coming together.

I'm sorry to hear about your ankle and the continuing drama with your roommate.  You're almost done!

FYI. Public can post

I just double-checked.  People can post on this blog.

Instructions:
1.  Open the post you would like to comment on.
2.  Click on the "Comments" link.  It's usually preceded by a number, such as "0 comments."
3.  Enter your comment.
4.  Select your user profile.  This can be your Google ID, or "Anonymous" or the like.  This must be selected in order to post.
5.  Enter the code word presented to confirm you are not a robot.
6.  Submit
7.  Check to make sure that the post was completed.  If you are still having problems, contact me.

Transportation Day (yesterday)

Yesterday was crazy!

Things actually went mostly according to plan.

I slept from 6pm to midnight the night before in anticipation for yesterday.  I then drove from Indianapolis to Baltimore for the next 13 hours including breaks.  The worst part was around 5am, when I caught myself nodding off on the road.  I then pulled over and slept for an hour in Saraton, West Virginia.  I've never heard of it either and I couldn't even find it on the map!  The Garmin was extremely helpful once I got into Baltimore.  There are a lot of bridges over the port and the exit I needed (which was also a bridge) was hidden right behind a large toll booth.

Here is a picture of a little springtime n Saraton.

I finally got there at 1:30pm.  Getting all the paperwork organized truly paid off.  All I needed to do was get the car washed and get the fuel at or below 1/4 tank.  I found a place that hand washed cars (not too common anymore).  They offered a wash inside and out and a full car vacuum too.  For $20, I'd say that's a deal.  The actual cost was that it took around 30 minutes, but they did a really good job.  I tipped the guy because he did such a thorough job.

Then came the fuel fiasco.  Everywhere on the paperwork and when I arrived there, they specifically state 1/4 or less of fuel must be in the tank before it can be processed.  I had an extra 1/8th of a tank.  The office lady said, "Oh, you can just drive that off."  "Um, yeah.  Is there a place I can siphon it out instead?"  "Well, I don't know.  You can check in the nearby neighborhood (she gave more specific directions than this)."  The first place I check, "Oh, W's will do it."  I check W's, "Oh, AT's will do it."  I check AT's, "Oh, we have to do it totally different from the way we used to.  You have a VW, so the only way to do it is to remove the tank which takes 3 hours (time which neither I nor they had)."

I proceed to attempt to "drive it off," knowing full well that the high fuel efficiency of the car combined with the larger than usual gas tank meant I would have to drive the car around 100 miles before getting the fuel where I needed it to be.  Hence, why I opted to siphon it if I could.  After about 30 minutes of driving, I started to worry.  It was almost 3pm, and it was either 3:30pm or 4pm when they would accept the last vehicles for the day.  I really did not want to have to spend the night if I could have avoided it.  In desperation, with an extra 1/16th of a tank, I checked in again to see if they would cut me a break.  The security guard asked (mind you, this is the second time I had seen her), "Well, is it a diesel?"  "Yes."  "Oh, well then the 1/4 rule doesn't apply."

Ok.  While I understand why that would be, being that diesel is not nearly as combustible as gasoline...seriously?  That was not in writing ANYWHERE!  It was nice to get that break, but I just wasted probably 90 minutes by that point trying to take care of something I didn't need to worry about.

Processing the vehicle went smoothly, but wow.  I question the security there.  They do have barbed wire fencing and security guards, but the waterfront was not fenced in, and they left car keys in the driver's side doors in the open air lot.  Clearly, this is not a security concern, but man, I could see quite a few opportunities if I was in the car stealing business.  By the way, they take the license plates off the cars too.

Inspecting the car, there were a few odd scuffs and one or two small scratches, but otherwise it was in pretty good shape.  I'll have to change the oil once we get it back in Germany.  The dealership said to change it every 10,000 miles!  I'm sorry, but I'll stick to my routine 3,000...unless it's illegal, but even then, how could they enforce it?  They took the license plates off, which I found odd, but I read a flyer on the wall about how they don't even want the plates shipped with the car if the tranportation is to Bahrain.  In that country, they apparently will harass Americans if they can I'd you as such...even with your license plate simply being in your possession!

One customer two places in front of me was being crazy weird.  There was a whole team of inspectors around his car, and he was fussing about any smudge on the car, even from opening the doors.  He yelled at one of the inspectors when he mistook a comment about the vehicle as a slight against his "client."  After about 20 minutes, he started playing nice.  Don't know what his problem was.

My inspector (yes, I only had one) was very nice, professional, easy to talk to, and patient.  I took pictures of the car again, making sure to take pictures of the existing scratches and scuffs.  I felt he was very respectful of the car.  Makes sense, considering each one is like worth $20,000 and up.  Lots of personalized plates in the lot where plates were still on the cars.  Lot of nice cars too.  Most were SUV's.  The one in front of me looked like a 2011 or 2012 Lexus in really good shape.

The VPC (vehicle processing center) hailed me a cab to the airport.  I set out around 4:30pm.  Holy smokes!  $50 and 30 minutes on average to the airport!  Looking on the map, it does not look like it should take that long.  It did end up taking that long and costing that much.

Baltimore definitely strikes me as an industrial city.  None of the buildings looked that pretty, and the harbor was seriously the size of the city...it was HUGE!  They had lots of cars, coal, and limestone for cement lined up for transport.  Semi-trucks are everywhere.  They supposedly have their share of steel too, which is now owned by the Russians.    The port is so big, and the need to maneuver around it so great, that they have several tunnels under the bay and tons of bridges over it.  Interestingly, many of the houses are built of brick, much like Charlottesville, except way more downscale.  Clay must just be very readily available in that region of the country.

I scheduled a flight with Delta for cost reasons at the Baltimore airport to Indianapolis via Detroit.  The flight was supposedly boarding right when I got my ticket, so I got through security only to get pulled aside because I forgot I packet my Leatherman in my bag.  They were actually very nice and brief about it and I paid $12 to ship it back to my house...which will hopefully get forwarded to Indiana in about 4 weeks.  Amazingly, the flight was late in arriving, so I made it to the gate with about 15 minutes to spare before boarding.

During the flight to Detroit at 7:30pm, I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since 9am that morning.  I was so busy moving things around that I didn't think about food.  Upon arrival in Detroit, the flight attendent had the wrong time zone and announce the local time as 8:50pm...the exact time for boarding my next flight.  Getting in the airport, I double-checked to find that it was actually 7:55pm.  I had an hour for dinner!

I ate a lot: a breaded chicken tender appetizer, a large gyro (which was marginal), a serving of french fries, a rueben sandwich (which was crazy good), and several large servings of diet pepsi.  I was quite full, but very happy.

The flight to Indianapolis was neat in that we flew parallel to the storm system that I was supposed to have driven through earlier that morning but somehow completely avoided.  Lots of lightning, but it was on the side of the plane opposite of me, so I couldn't get pictures.

Upon arrival, I needed to help Rodney bring back a car from the repair shop.  I find it only fitting that I ended the journey the way I began: driving.  I got back at 11:15pm, 23 hours after I left.  All that with only 1 hour of sleep in between isn't too bad.  The real price I paid was a lot of pain in my hip and a very stiff back.  It all goes back to the hip injury I sustained years ago combined with sitting not perfectly ergonomical seats for such a long period of time.  A handful of days of exercise will get it back in line.  Boy, I was stiff and in pain this morning.

I woke up this morning to beautiful foggy day.  I very slowly walked the dog, saw a few neat things (shown below), and then got back to the farm.

It's my first day of dog and cat sitting on the far.  Thus far, it seems to be going well.  Here's another attempt of illustrating the dogs (in order of appearance: Etsy, Buster, Henry, Hank, Carl).  I'll try to get a better picture of Buster.  He totally looks like an Ewok without the hood!

On the Georgia Front, more paperwork today.  I'll update this post if there is more than that tonight.

Transportation Day (to be posted tomorrow)

Oy!  23 hours with 1 hour of sleep.  Traveled over 1400 miles.  Very tired.  Will post details tomorrow.

On the Georgia Front, my wife spent the day doing some out-processing paperwork, she passed her PT test no problem (yay!), and then cleaned a rifle.  I'm particularly proud of the PT test pass because it sounds like she was in shape for it although she hasn't had a chance to train and she passed each component with no difficulties.  One less thing for her to worry about now.  She's looking forward to doing some rifle work once at the farm.  Could be a learning experience for me:)

Glorious Day Gearing up for Baltimore

Had some excitement today.

C very wonderfully made breakfast this morning. After I did dishes, I walked the dog in very glorious weather.

The birds were all quite happy; the songbirds were all singing away.  All the usual suspects were around: sparrows, american robins, juncos, american cardinals, black-capped chicadees, and a few turkey vultures.  I saw TONS of raptors in Indiana along the way, many of them I did not recognize.

Once I got back, I sought out our cats Tobias and Aviva.  Tobias was easy to find.  Aviva was in her favorite fuzz box.  We played with shoestring and she went back to her normal self as well.  I got to pet them both for a while.

I then proceeded to get my car paperwork organized one last time.  While doing so, Henry got loose.  Rather than chase him, C and R opted to send Hank out for him.  It took a few seconds for Hank to figure out what he was to do, but once he got it, he got onto Henry's scent and took off after him.  After about 10 minutes of waiting, Hank came racing back with Henry right behind him.  Ironically, once they got to the yard, they took a sharp right and headed down to a nearby neighbors yard where other dogs were.  One very short car ride there, C and R picked them up and got them back home.  It was so cool to see a dog actually do work, unlike in the city where dogs pretty much walk by their owners and do tricks.

Here's a video of them all in one room: from left to right: Hank (head only, largely hidden by the kennel), Carl (tucked on the couch, also hard to see), Henry, Etsy, and Buster.

I finished organizing my paperwork and then exercised a little where I saw very small purple flowers in the lawn.  I didn't recognize them.  I'll try to take a picture of them soon, if I can.  The walk this morning took care of my stiff back.  The exercise, while not immediately helping my hip, made my hip feel tons better several hours later...just like normal.  I returned to the house and chatted with R a bit.  He replaced the alternator in the Cavalier and that seemed to fix the problem.  We also talked about batteries and the curious dome light issue in the Cavalier.

Tobias was dancing around for a very brief moment in the living room.  It was hilarious to watch.  Obviously, he was in a good mood.  He also nestled in my lap when I was on the phone with my wife in the afternoon.

Later, I saw the two kitties by the sunny window, just like they usually are.

R made some steaks for a late lunch/early dinner.  They were really good!  I then took Etsy for another walk.  Although only around 70 degrees, she was acting warm.  I'll have to brush out her undercoat in the near future.

I then finished organizing things for the trip tomorrow, starting at midnight tonight.  Turns out that a storm is expected to start around the time I'm leaving and will follow me the whole way.  According to forecast, I should outrun it somewhere in Ohio, but we'll see.  If things get really bad, I always have the option of spending an extra night before processing the vehicle.  Figures.

On the Georgia Front, my wife is finishing enjoying the weekend by getting her gear packed.  She gets to turn in her training gear tomorrow morning and start her week long stretch of paperwork for out-processing. After that, I get to see her on Saturday!  Just a heads up, I will probably not have much exciting information from her this week.

Arrived in Indianapolis

***To all those who have asked, YOU MAY NOW POST COMMENTS WITHOUT LOGGING IN!  I thought I had fixed this setting earlier, but apparently, I did not.  I will alert everyone should I choose to change this.  You now have no excuse not to comment if you desire to:)***

I spent most of the day travelling from Saint Paul to Indianapolis.

Before I left, my parents came by to send me off with homemade apple raisin muffins.  They were quite good.

Travel itself went very well with remarkably few hitches.  The weather was unseasonable wonderful today and traffic was also unexpectedly clear.  Instead of the typical 13 hours to make the trip, I made it in 11 hours.  When you factor in breaks, I actually made the trip under time somehow, even with minor road construction and a 6 mile detour.  Here are some pictures of places I stopped at along the way.  I don't expect to see scenery like this when I'm in Europe.

This was a rest area in Wisconisn...

This was around 100 miles outside of Indianapolis.  The picture is of a fighter plane parked in the parking lot.  I somehow missed it coming into the entrance, but I did see in on the way out.  Cut me some slack...it was camouflaged.

Upon arrival, I moved everything I had into my temporary room in the house.  It's quite cozy, and plenty spacious for me.  The farm houses four other dogs, two other cats beside the two that are my wife's and mine, and has a good number of chickens and possibly turkeys in the barn.  R and I slowly introduced the dogs to each other.  It went by far more easily than either of us anticipated.  It is possible that Etsy is finally calming down a bit.  R also got some mighty tasty pizza for us for dinner.  C was having her alternate break evening from the farm.

Here are a few pictures of where I'll be staying the next month...

Don't worry, I'll get plenty of pictures of the animals in the near future.

When C got back, we chatted briefly, then I pretty much got ready for bed.  Our cats are being kept separate from the house cats as one of the four don't seem to get along too well with the others.  Our cats get their own room during the night, and their one cat gets her own room during the day, so I will see the kitties tomorrow.  Tobias, no doubt, will claw the crap out of me.  I'll have to make sure to wear a non-valuable shirt and pants.  I am very much looking forward to seeing and holding them again.

My day tomorrow will be odd as there is daylight savings tomorrow morning and I will be going to bed around 6pm in order to get up and leave at 12am midnight between Sunday and Monday.  I'm doing that so I can drive to Baltimore and arrive during vehicle processing hours and them fly back to Indianapolis right after.  Unfortunately, because I don't know when I will arrive or complete vehicle processing, I'm forced to buy the plane ticket at the airport.  I called earlier, and it's cheaper to do it that way rather than guess and pay extra for a change fee.  I suppose I could have scheduled an evening flight, but I don't want to stay in Baltimore any longer than I have to.

On the Georgia Front, I got more details about the past few days.  The JA's were running on low sleep and lots of hiking.  So the morning they got "attacked," my wife was working on heading toward supporting the guard tower when an officer stopped her and informed her she was now "wounded" and had to lay on the ground until someone got her to the infirmary.  So, while she got to sleep in a bed "recovering," many of her friends had to guard their mini-station overnight on hard gravel.

Their last day was spent doing an 8 mile march carrying all of their gear and some camp gear totalling over 50lbs per person.  Earlier in the week, when carrying some of the camp gear they had to carry approximately 100lbs per person!  My wife ended up finishing near the first pack at around 2 hours and 9 minutes because she is, by nature, a fast walker.  I know this because she outpaces me walking even though I'm a solid 6 inches or more taller than she is.

Last night and today, she spent with some fellow JA's off base.  I was informed today that she is recovering from all of the soreness and beating a body takes when it carries far more than it is used to for a long stretch of time.  The only relation I have close to that is portaging gear in the boundary waters.  8 miles at that weight is a lot!

Only 6 more days left until I get to see her again!  I'm so excited.  And I know she'll be excited to be done with training at that point!

T-8 hours

Today was fraught with anticipation.

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I was definitely making sure that everything was taken care of today.

I got rid of some motor oil, had the car checked one last time, vacuumed the entire house (thank you oh so much, Rad-man's Mom;)), packed almost all of the rest of my belongings, and had the last dinner at my house with my parents.

My parents helped me pack the last remainder of the household items and have offered to help on little things here and there after I leave early tomorrow morning.  One such thing is bringing muffins for breakfast for me tomorrow morning and taking care of the garbage after I leave.  They will also get the house keys to our power of attorney after I leave too, saving me some travel time tomorrow.  Upon their arrival to take me to the final American leg before Baltimore, they will also bring over a couple items that were not taken during the big move that were meant for Indiana.

The car is packed, the course it plotted, the schedule is made.  All that has to happen is for 5am to occur tomorrow.

Goodbye to the first house I ever purchased and my native homeland.  Hello crazy time!  Thank you all so much for helping me move in whatever capacity, even if it was simply eating out.  It was all very much appreciated and good memories!

Now, the new chapter begins!

Food, food, food!

There was so much food today, I can remember little else.

Being the first day technically unemployed, I really wanted to sleep in.  However, the dog kept me from doing such.  So after our morning walk I started my last load of laundry in the house.  I also plotted my courses for travel for the upcoming weekend, and confirmed I had all the paperwork I needed for transporting the car.

After that, I had an extended lunch with K-borg and D-Rock.  We opted for the sans website bar and grill Tin Cup, recently brought to fame by a well known Man vs. Food episode featuring a special challenge.  I have actually biked past it a lot going to work, but from the outside it only looks like a liquor store.  It really was pretty nice for a bar and grill on the inside.  We chose their cheese curds and boneless buffalo wings as appetizers and K-borg opted for the Lucifer burger while D-Rock and I each chose the Dirty Lucy.  The food was pretty good across the board.  K-borg and I decided early on that we were not prepared to take on their special challenge.  There's always a next time:)

Here are pictures of the food with a section of the menu...

K-borg had another obligation, but D-Rock wanted me to try the Perkins Chocolate Chipper for dessert.  He chose the french silk chocolate pie.  It was really good.  Here's a picture of that sweetness too...

D-Rock and I got to talking about his upcoming wedding which will be in Germany, not too terribly far from where my wife and I will be living.  They are experiencing very similar situations and issues that my wife and I had faced, so we naturally talked a long time about it.  They will be having a 4 day affair in Germany for their wedding.  It sounds like it is a crazy cultural experience.  I'll do my best set things up where my wife and I can make it to at least one of the days of festivities.

My parents came by and brought me dinner.  I ate while they started cleaning out the miscellaneous remaining garbage in my house and any items I did not intend to bring with me to Indiana.  They also made a list with my permission of items they could clear out of the house after I leave to decrease the amount of things I needed to do before departure.  It was actually very nice and thoughtful to have that support.  They also volunteered to bring a few large items to Indiana that did not get taken, namely my drum set that my wife's sister is interested in and a window air conditioner that my wife and I neglected to get back to her parents.  I thanked them for their help.  They will also swing by tomorrow for any last minute items.

On the Georgia Front, things got interesting.  She was on mock night patrol around 3am and got mock ambushed.  She suffered a mock injury to her right femoral artery.  Needless to say, she miraculously recovered :)  I did not hear or read what else she did during the day, but tomorrow an 8 mile march is scheduled.  They will certainly have other things in line, but I don't know what that will be.

Things are getting down to the wire!  I'll be leaving Minnesota in less than two days from now and will be gone for a long time!  Soon, I'll be trying my hand at tending a hobby farm in Indiana.  More on that later.  I'm starting to feel a little like a secret agent: moving around a lot, learning another language, following several paper trails, and learning a lot of new things in a very short amount of time all in the name of the government. I'm pretty much living a high school dream right now!

Closure

Today was filled with a lot of closure.

I had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning.  Their main computer system was down, so they used their backup system which was a lot slower.  This created the opportunity for a lot more conversation than usual.  My dental hygenist apparently had grown attached to our conversations and said that she was going to miss them.  The dentist too seemed genuinely sad to know I was leaving.  They were both, however, very excited for my upcoming travel to Germany.  I signed a release form for dental information for Germany and got copies of my most recent records just in case.

This was the last day I officially trained my replacement into my position.  I discussed the option of using me as a consultant over the next month or so to complete my replacement's transition.  They like the idea, but did not finalize anything with me about it.  We'll see where that goes.

We had a very good farewell lunch at the Flame.  They've condensed their menu and created a very grandiose salad bar.  It was crazy good!  I also ordered a gouda juicy lucy, which was also a good call, and finished it off with a chocolate fondue dessert.  Everyone else chose to only order the salad bar, however, several people shared in the chocolate fondue.  That fondue was really good too.  I could almost swear it tasted like Ghiardelli chocolate.

After lunch, I write a letter of resignation, and confirmed that I will receive at least one letter of recommendation.  I was given the ergonomic keyboard (which I believe I purchased without reimbursement anyway).  That was hilarious in and of itself because I LOVE it, but everyone else at the lab hates it.  It does admittedly take several days to get used to, but it's wonderful for my wrists which were beginning to hurt using the traditional straight and flat keyboard.  I also took my last desk piece...a beanie bag mouse.

The mouse actually has a family history for me.  My first stuffed toy I can remember having was a beanie baby grey mouse.  When we moved out of the farm house, we lost it in the move and it was never found again.  My mom, bless her heart, tried to help by making a replacement.  It looked very much the same, but it was cotton stuffed and didn't have the bean bag feel that I really liked about it.  I carried that memory of the beloved lost mouse throughout my life.  I think losing it so early made the memory all the more dear to me. Roughly 8 years ago, my dad found a large key ring fob beanie baby grey mouse and got it for me.  It was such a sweet gift.  I kept that mouse on my computer monitor in college (I think) and on my computer monitor at work for at least 5 years.  I'll have to make sure I don't lose it in this upcoming move.

After leaving work for the last time, I took care of a few errands, slept about an hour, handed K custody of the canoe, and then headed to dinner with my immediate family.  We kept conversation casual.  Dinner was a good lasagna and salad with a low sugar apple pie dessert.  C-Pat also got some sparkling juice/nonalcoholic wine for me for the occasion.  We chatted some more, and then played Snake Oil, which is Apples To Apples except the judge is a target market instead of a subject by card draw, and the other players try to sell an imaginary product to the target market using two cards in their hand.  The two cards become the product.  It actually is far more fun and, in my opinion, a well designed game.  I may have to get it:)

My brother teared up a bit, knowing that he wouldn't see me stateside before Germany after I left.  He still wants me to get an XBox 360 for gaming in the future.  I told him I was more in favor of doing it via computer and would be willing to pay for the games in that event, so we'll see what the compromise is.  Could I have a poll from readers as to which is the better idea?

We all said our thank yous and our goodbyes.  Overall, I feel like it was a good day today.

On the Georgia Front, my wife completed her anti-terrorism course and proceeded with her classmates to their outdoor training stretch.  She has a shift of night patrol tonight.  I'll find out how that goes tomorrow, hopefully.  Given her situation, she is more restricted in communications, so information from her may be scare for the next several days.  I do get to see her again in a little over a week!  Yay!  She's almost done with her six months of training!

Rudolph's!

Food and soccer today.  I can't complain.

Got to work, everything was fine.  People were saying how they were going to miss me.  F wasn't in today, so  maybe I'll get a chance tomorrow to discuss potential consultation in terms of extended training for my position.

I had lunch with K-borg at Rudolph's.  We had the Dracula wings that we had been waiting to try again for over a year.  They are still just as good as we remembered.

We also had ribs (you see K-borg eyeing one approvingly), K-borg had some rib tips which were crazy good, I had a average burger, and we had a rich vanilla ice cream fudge bar sundae.  We plan on having lunch on Thursday too.  I also gave him his cribbage board.  He liked it, but a five track cribbage board is no at all compact and it's not often one has that many people in one place to play cribbage, so I only expect him to pull if out for special occasions.

K-borg also told me that he was seeing his new girlfriend almost every other day now.  I'm so happy for him.  He seems genuinely happy too.  I sincerely hope all goes well for those two.

After I got home, I tried to compost some items, only to find that all Ramsey County compost sites were closed for the entire week this week.  WTF?  Budget cuts?  I don't remember this one.  These sites are supposed to be year-round too.  Here I am chilling out in the porch as it was crazy warm today (58F!!) and a sunny day.

My mom then dropped by.  We walked the dog around Lake Phalen and discussed my departure and dinner with the family tomorrow.  It was a nice day for a walk, and everyone else in the neighborhood felt the same way.  The lake was packed!

After that, I went to my last stateside soccer game.  We lost, but it was a little more energetic of a game than usual.  The women has more subs than usual, so that rounding things out very nicely.  I ran around like a crazy person, as usual.  I did a decent job on defense.  The opposing team had a former teammate of mine from several years ago.  It was nice to play against a familiar and congenial face.  Everyone on my team was very happy for me and my travel endeavors, and almost all of them have spent several years either in Europe, Latin America, or even both, so they completely shared my excitement.

I now get to look forward to my last day of work, good lunch, a busy day, and dinner with my immediate family tomorrow.

On the Georgia front, my wife starts roughing it for a couple days.  I suspect they will be spending the night outdoors under the stars among other things.  This means that I will have little if any communication with her for the next two days for sure.  We'll see how tough things get tomorrow.  I can't speak to what they did today, because we honestly didn't get around to talking about it.

Cirbbage board done!

I did a lot of phone calling today.

After work, I took care of forwarding mail to Indiana as of this Friday.  I called a lot of different people for a lot of different things: car transport paperwork, a tax form, financial paperwork, meeting with people before I leave, setting up safeharboring the canoe, and potential airplane tickets.  I took the car in to finally get that light error message looked at.  Apparently, the "right" side is the driver's side.  I also tuned up my calendar and sent that out to immediate family on both sides.

So far, all planning seems to be going relatively well.  I know I will be mad scrambling Thursday and Friday, but everything else seems to be under control as long as I stay on top of it.  I'll check one last time, but I think I have all of the paperwork I need for transporting the car.  All that is left is for me to pack and get out of dodge.  I am, however, constantly finding things that I need to check on or call about.  Today was a shining example of it.

I finished K-borg's cribbage board.  Here are some pictures I took of it.  It's not as complete as I would prefer, but it's certainly usable and in good enough shape for me to be comfortable enough to give it to him tomorrow.  I wish I had time to create a compartment to hold the pins and maybe a deck of cards.  Dimensionally, it's a 25 inch long and 3 inch diameter cylinder board, just for a frame of reference.

Spencer's drill press and Larry's band saw helped out a lot, but I also think the planning and care I took into it also made a huge difference in terms of putting it all together.  I'll be presenting it to him tomorrow, hence why the date is tomorrow.

For those not in the know, the significance behind this cribbage board is that it has 5 tracks.  You cannot buy a five track cribbage board...I've tried.  If you know the rules of cribbage, you know that you can actually expand the maximum number of players from 4 all the way to 10.  I've also tried that.  You only have 2 or 3 cards in the crib for the cut, but it's a crazy experience playing with 5 teams of 2.  It makes for a crowded table and a crazy insane game.  K-borg was one of the people to experience that one game, and not long afterward he asked me to use this piece of wood to make a 5 track board for him.  Well, almost 4 years later, I finally got around to it (I still feel a little guilty for waiting so long).

On the Georgia front, my wife's one toenail fell off due to excessive walking from her Land Nav training the week before.  Now, I'm sure many of you will be mortified by this, but most long distance runners out there know that this is not that big of a deal.  It's happened to me at least twice, if not three times.  It doesn't hurt, and the body actually takes care of itself quite easily when this happens.  Further, it's good when it falls off because it is already healing itself when that happens.  I even double-checked with her and she confirmed to me that it doesn't hurt at all.  Just the concept is unsettling.  She joked with me about how I felt about being married to a deformed woman :)  I told her I love her very much :)

She gets more PT tomorrow.  Because of being on profile for her feet from Land Nav, she was only technically allowed to run today.  She was surprised at how in shape she still is even though she hasn't run in over a week.  This is also good news, as I told her that it means that she has a stronger baseline.  She's getting in shape whether she likes it or not :)