Music List!

Oh hey!  Music!  A neat little widget so you can listen to a selection of what I like to assail my ears with on a daily basis!

The Big Giant Head

Dogs are wonderful friends and it's sad to see them go.  So, Mars, give my love to Shark, Muffin, and Merlyn.  They're waiting for you up there.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Happy Halloween in a very FSM fashion!

sun? rain? both!

As I sit here in the bi-polar weather that is all Irish, I figured I'd write another blog!  All is going just peachy on the home-front.  Loki doesn't get all the walks he should because as soon as we're ready to go, the heavens open up.

Say hi, Loki! "tgujjgnb!"  So he's not the best typist. :)

He has, however, recovered from his challah-consuming incident and is as goofy as ever.  My house repairs are finally done, and my dryer is actually connected to an outside vent!  The insurance company came through with a payment (better than nothing, but sure wouldn't pay for a new sofa like the one that got damaged) and the check is at the bank!  My new sofa still hasn't arrived, but should be in before Thanksgiving.  12-week delivery window, since it comes from the US.

The prep-work begins for packing for my trip to CT.  British Airways allows 2 carry-ons, except for flights originating from UK airports!  However, it looks like I can check-in online from Belfast, check bags and print boarding passes!!  We're getting out of the dark ages for international flights at last!

The application for my permanent settlement visa is almost ready to go.  All that's left is picking out decent "documents" to include that prove we've lived here 2 years and send them a ridiculously large amount of money and my passports.  So, I will be goin' nowhere after I get back from CT until they process.  We don't want to ask about waiting times!

Dogs and Challah

Well, the move has gone about as well as expected.  It took a week for my phone/internet to work and another 2 weeks to decide my internet was really BAD and a couple of calls to tech support seem to have resolved (knock wood) the issue.  My large sofa is still in my garage and I am now waiting for the insurance company to decide on a settlement value, since it's not reparable.  My new sofa has been bought, but hasn't made it over from the US yet. Yes, I buy American-made furniture!  And, I have recovered from the stench of paint fumes.

I celebrated Rosh Hashanah as always, with home-made challah and pflaumkuchen.  Loki, however, has a certain unsubtle penchant for bread-like baked goods.  He was staring down the challah since it came out of the oven.  To keep it safe, I left it in the oven when I was away.  Just in case.  He's tall...  Until tonight.  I was on the phone when my ride to JuJitsu came.  Wednesday class is in Kilkeel, which is a good hour-long drive south.  I only go sometimes.  In my hurry, the challah was left on the counter.  It is now devoured, as the cat devoured the kid. (insert Odell singing)  Loki couldn't resist.  And there was most of it left.  But, he ate it everywhere.  On the sofa, on the big soft chair, in the middle of the room, in the office on his bed, in the bedroom in the corners.  IN my bed.  Yes, there were crumbs in the corners, under the couch cushions, and in my sheets.  In the process, he licked/rubbed his nose raw and therefore got blood on said cushions.  And my sheets and quilt.  His bed...no...that's clean.

So, at 11pm I started cleaning.  And vacuuming.  And stain-removing. And changing the sheets.  And rubbing stain remover into the quilt and getting that in the wash.  Cycles take over an hour here...  But, it came clean, along with the couch cushions, as far as I can tell.

Next time, the bread gets put away.

and the move goes on..

And the countdown begins!  I have less than a week before I move...a mile across town.  My movers are scheduled to pack Friday morning and unpack Friday afternoon.  So, being slightly more adventurous movers (or realizing they in fact take too many tea breaks to get the job done in a day), they call to come Thursday afternoon to "pre-pack".  There goes my afternoon of getting things ready my way.  Oh well.  Loki will be hurried off to the kennels in the morning, and I will make sure the packing men are gone by 6.  I have a JuJitsu class to get to, and well, since I asked to be moved on a Friday for a reason....they can just work faster!

The good news about the move is that the army will make sure the electric is switched on so all I have to do is call and switch the account address.  The phone SHOULD be on, but they can't tell me how long it will be before my DSL is up and running.  And my satellite TV...I called too late...it'll be a whole week before they can come out and get the new equipment up.  With any luck, I'll get a basic signal from the existing dish and not miss NCIS or Private Practice.  We are sadly way behind in TV.  I haven't even seen ads for the second season of Army Wives!

With luck...I'll have internet shortly after the move, get everything all set up to my liking, and perhaps won't be plagued by the bored teenagers who come around my current neighborhood at night and drink...

On Moving..

The word has come back that, in light of there being no houses in England for us and that Iain will have 2 moves within 11 months, we are able to keep the house here in Northern Ireland.  It will mean that at some point before the end of the year, I will be moved to another house.  But that's the army's responsibility to orchestrate.  Iain will be off at the end of August..fully moved into the Mess by the army.  All we have to do is collect the things he needs to take with him!

The logistics of everything will probably be more complicated than necessary, but we're talking military intelligence here, folks!

Just another summer day

It hasn't rained.  I've had to actually water the lawn.  I tried washing my car...and to no avail...it's threatened, but no rain.  So, everyone is having barbeques and the air smells like charcoal.  We have still heard nothing about housing, so we wait and wait.  In the meantime, I am going to force myself to keep sorting through things I really don't need and find new homes for them.  Lots of bags of clothes to be taken to a clothing bank, but I am dreading the chore of going through my books.  The local library is going to be happy with all the nice things I can provide!

So for now, things progress as normal.  Normal is good over here.  Exciting isn't always good, so I'll take normal and boring any day!

Moving dilemma

Iain's away for a 5-day geek course, and before he left said we might be able to move across town right away.  So we get to decide if we want to deal with the hassle of getting packed up and moved across town in May and then move again in August.  There are benefits to the move...we'd be mostly packed and would be in a slightly better neighborhood.  The army wants to close this development and sell it soon, as well.  And, if it turned out that there wasn't housing suitable in Blandford, I'd already be settled and we wouldn't have to try to move me into a house across town AND get Iain's stuff together for a move to England at the same time.

Decisions, decisions...

I made a blog..

Well, what can I say? I joined the ranks of bloggers! And first up in my opening post is the latest news.  Tomorrow is my last shift at the wine shoppe.  I'm tired of it, and standing for hours on tile floors is not good for one's back. Also, I got my purple belt in JuJitsu Monday night.  I am just recovering from muscle ache..in time for tonight's class!

In terms of "us", Iain made it onto the Foreman's Course!  It is in September in Dorset.  As for our move, all is up in the air. If there is ample accommodation, I suspect we will move in late August. If there isn't accommodation, well, I might have to stay here in N.I. a bit longer.  The downside of that is that I might have to move across town!  However, nothing is certain until it's written in black&white and triplicate...and you have the new house keys.  So...more on that as I find out!