We are definitely not in Zurich anymore.

Reality smacked me in the face this week; I went back to work!

I'm working three days a week for the company I was with before I left for Switzerland. While I'm enjoying working again, going back has been an interesting experience. Some things are the same and others aren't. And it's odd to sit at my desk, one cubicle away from where I sat two and a half years ago, and wonder, "Did that really just happen?"

It doesn't feel like it. It seems like I was just there, at the office, working on projects. Projects, coincidentally, that are now being run by other engineers and are now in construction.

But it did and I'm so thankful for that. Brian and I challenged ourselves by moving to Switzerland and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. The experience changed us, for the better I like to think, and gave us life long friends.

Marion was lucky enough to make life long friends as well. And she's been missing them dearly. This week, she decided to email some of them back in Switzerland. Well, okay, she dictated to me and I wrote it. Either way, here is one of the emails she sent:

Dear S,

Please come to America to see Marion and Mommy and Daddy and Bettina. If you come to my house, you have to go my school too. I want to play dress ups with you S and Grammie wants to see you too. I want you to play with all my toys. I miss you.

Love,
Marion

Writing that kind of felt like someone ripped my heart out and played football with it a bit; completely broke my heart. But I am so so happy that she has these friends in her life and look forward to helping her keep those friendships for a long time. Even if it hurts to do it sometimes.

It always happens when you move, but it still annoys.

We are still unpacking over here. At this point we've gotten through most of what was in storage while we lived in Switzerland. That was a lot of fun; there was a surprise in every box! "Oh, we have nice china!" "Wow, dishes and silverware that aren't from Ikea!" "Huh, why did we buy this again?"

It was like shopping for free in the comfort of your own home.

The things from Switzerland have not been so lucky. The good news is that the eight boxes we shipped have arrived and been unpacked. Bad news? The luggage we packed and brought over with us has not all been unpacked yet.

Why? Well, life has gotten in the way. Marion's going to school, Betti's a monster who requires constant attention, we had a massive ant invasion, and we went to the beach for a week.

Yep, life is hard.

But now we must unpack. I'm missing something and it is driving me mad. Now you all must be wondering, what is it? What are you missing?

We are missing our salt and pepper grinder.

Yea yea yea, laugh away. But this salt and pepper grinder is AWESOME! It is a grinder with salt on one side, pepper on the other, and a handle you turn right or left to grind what you want. I got it on sale at the Coop and have been unable to find a replacement online.

It's the little things sometimes, okay?

Settling in.

The girls and I are spending our first night in our new home tonight. Up until now we've been camped out at my parent's house while I took care of a myriad of things. But now things are (semi) ready for us to move in and so we took the plunge.

Right now it is closing on 8 pm our time and I'm pretty sure my monitor isn't working since I can hear various shouts from upstairs. I hope the rest of the night goes better than it started.

So I'm sitting here, blogging again (finally), and looking around our house marveling at how different our lives are now. It happened so fast. And it is so odd to look around our new home at the things that were in storage mixed with the things from our travels. For example, there are two purple leather poufs we bought in Marrakech sitting on the rug we had in our master bedroom before we moved to Switzerland. So very odd how they all go together now.

And then I start thinking about where I was four, six, eight weeks ago. Was I really on a cruise through the Baltic and North Sea less than two months ago? Did I really spend a week in Provence? Four days in Marrakech? Move my family and some of our belongings to another country? Did all of that really just happen?

It seems like a lifetime ago.

Aside from the amazement of what we just did, I'm adjusting to living in the US. I've driven more in the past week than I did in some months in Switzerland. I can understand everything that is going on around me and sometimes it hurts my head to hear that much talking. I spent an hour walking through my local grocery store, memorizing where everything was and being amazed at the price of everything. I bought strawberries on Monday and ate some today (still good!). And I've been to Target five times.

It's been a wild week but we're getting there. The hardest part of this transition, by far, has been missing our friends. We might as well start saving now for visits to see everyone!

Tomorrow begins our final phase of our move. Brian arrives after finalizing things in Switzerland for us and I can't wait to see what differences really stick out for him. And to see Marion and Betti's faces when they see him. That will be priceless.

Why hello there blog, how are you?

I've missed you, blog. I've been a little busy though. Since I last wrote you I have:

- Sold all of our household items and gave the ones that couldn't sell away.
- Packed up what we wanted to keep and mailed seven boxes to our new home in the US.
- Packed up the extra stuff that didn't get mailed and brought it with me on the plane (seven very large bags plus two carry-ons).
- Managed to forget that the very fragile snow globe a friend gave me had water in it when I packed it in my carry-on. Heathrow security confiscated it.
- Arrived to the heat and humidity of Maryland and promptly switched my jeans and sweater Swiss weather for shorts and t-shirts.
- Crashed in exhaustion after my flight.
- Woke up and saw my girls for the first time in two and a half weeks.
- Had a full day of errands where I bought: a car, a refrigerator, a washer and dryer, and some small necessities from Target (it was like returning to the mother ship).
- And finally, yesterday, I moved all of our stuff out of my parent's basement and into our new home.

Now I have a house full of boxes and will be unpacking and organizing for the rest of the week.

So, blog, aren't you jealous? Trust me, I'd rather be here writing to you but things must be done. I'm sorry, I will be back soon!

Moving here was hard, but leaving...

The fam and I went to Bern on Monday (post to come this week). Bern is my favorite city in Switzerland. I can't really put my finger on way, I just love the atmosphere, the bears, and the main street. It just has a great feel to it for me.

As we were leaving, I realized: I will never come back to Bern.

And holy hell, did that realization set off some feelings.

We aren't even that far away from the move, actually. I mean, yes, two and a half months will be here before we know it. We know people who are leaving before that so we haven't felt the pressure of the move yet.

But when I realized the finality of it, the fact that I will probably never see Bern again... that really just put it into perspective. And I think this feeling is why leaving here will be so much harder than it was leaving Baltimore to move here.

When we left Baltimore, we knew this move would be temporary. We knew that we would see our loved ones again and live near them again. Yes, the separation would be hard. But we would be back eventually.

This move... well, who knows if we will ever get back to Switzerland. And, if we ever do, it will surely be different. Our friends, expats themselves, will no doubt move on or back to their homes in time. The plus side is that we will have friends scattered all over the world to go see. The downside of that is that we will friends scattered all over the world.

These last two months are just that. Our last two months- in Switzerland, living in a postcard, with our friends.

Brian said it best; this whole situation is bittersweet. We are heartbroken to be leaving this life we have created here but excited to have a home and grow our lives back in Baltimore. It will be one of the hardest things we ever do.

So we've decided to spend what free time we have enjoying our time here instead of squeezing a ton of trips in. That's not to say we won't be traveling, we will. But we hope to enjoy this awesome quality of life Switzerland has to offer (if the sun ever comes out again) before we move back.

Bring it on.

We bought a house yesterday.

Without ever stepping foot in it. Just a little crazy, right?

Thankfully my parents and our real estate agent were a huge help giving us their opinion on the place, along with almost 200 pictures. And we had the inspection so we have a good idea of the condition of the house.

Still, kind of weird to buy a home this way.

Brian has a holiday in a couple of weeks so I will be flying to Baltimore to see our new house in person. Hope I like it!

Moving, the Swiss way

We are moving this week to the larger apartment next door. Funny, Brian and I swore off moving for awhile when we packed our bags and came here five months ago. Yet, here we are again.

But this time, we are subject to the Swiss rules of moving.

First of all, in most rental contracts, there are two times of the year when the renter can get out of contract with only a months notice. All other times of the year you are responsible for giving three months notice. Or, if you move out before those three months are up, you can find someone else to take the apartment. If you do not, you are responsible for those three months.

As luck should have it, we are not moving during one of those two acceptable times during the year. And, unfortunately, we have not found a tenant to take our current apartment. So, as of November 1, we are responsible for rent for both of the apartments. Great timing by us.

Additionally, renters are not allowed to leave an apartment at the end of the year due to the Christmas holidays. Double whammy.

We are still hopeful that we will find someone. Otherwise, Christmas is going to be small this year.

Another Swiss rule of renting is the state of cleanliness required for the apartment. Each renter is entitled to a clean apartment when they move in. And by clean, they mean spotless, eat off the floor kind of clean. I've been told the cleaners actually take off the handles to the stovetop and clean each individually.

This results in a multitude of businesses willing to clean your apartment for a hefty fee. Our apartment has been listed on a popular rental website for almost two weeks now. We have received two phone calls as a result of the ad from men who only spoke German. Once I found someone to translate I found out that both of them had cleaning companies and wanted to clean our place. Talk about frustrating! I was hoping for apartment leads and I get cold calls. Pfft.

Anyway, we had the walk thru for our new apartment today. They've lived there for four years so it needs some sprucing up. The management company is going to paint the place and recaulk some things and then it will be ready for us.

We will start moving in tomorrow evening and finish up on Thursday. Next week, we get to do the whole thing over again for our old apartment. And then we will definitely be swearing off moving for awhile!

Sunday, June 1: Our last day in the US for a long time

Since we had finished most of the packing the day before, we decided we had time to go to the Baltimore Farmer's Market and visit our friends and their new baby in the hospital before leaving for the airport. Some of us woke up easier than others. Brian and Erin had a great time the night before.

We love the JFX Farmer's Market
and will certainly miss our favorite Sunday morning activity. But we were able to get some coffee, donuts, and oyster mushroom fritters during our visit as well as see some gorgeous flowers.

Marion warning all who come near not to take her donut.

Oyster mushroom fritters- add feta, hot sauce, lettuce and voila! Yummy goodness.



Everyone relaxing under the JFX.

Flowers- so gorgeous.



After the market, we went to the hospital to see Evan, our friend's new baby son.

He was absolutely adorable. And big! 8 lb, 11 oz. Healthy and gorgeous and quiet. A perfect new baby :-) Except for him bringing his hand up when I took the picture above. Marion must have taught him how to do that.

Then it was back to my parent's house where final packing commenced. Although we had been able to get a lot of it finished the night before we still had some things to finish up. Didn't take too long, but it was chaotic.

Once we were all packed and had luggage in three (yes, 3!) cars, we started our drive up to Philly. Not too bad of a drive, no traffic. Although we did have to stop once to change Marion.

An hour and a half or so later, we were at the airport. Skycab helped us to unload everything and check in. Most of the bags were under 50 lbs (shocking to us!) so we only had to pay for the extra bags we checked. I think we had 8 bags between the three of us, with another one under my mom's name. And I thought we packed light.

Check in was a breeze by the way, I highly recommend flying international on Sundays. No lines at all!

Then it was time for goodbyes. Always the saddest part, especially wondering if Marion gets it. But we said our goodbyes, tearfully, and made our way to security.

Security is where it first became clear that having my mom there to help us was a huge help. Even though we checked alot of baggage, we also carried on quite a bit. And the TSA likes to make things complicated. So we had to remove both of our laptops, Marion's DVD player, fold up the stroller, and walk the carseat around. Oh, and coordinate getting Marion to walk through the metal detector by herself. All while we had the TSA agent reminding us that we had to remove our shoes and jackets and put them through. Yea, we know. But we kind of have our hands full, thanks. Not helpful.

We got through in one piece and with minimal nasty looks from the people in line behind us.

Marion was excited to see the plane once we got the gate.

So excited that Brian bought her Air Force One.

We were able to grab dinner before preboarding the plane, which was nice. Preboarding was awesome because we definitely needed the extra time. Once we settled in, it was time to take off. Marion was a champ and loved the process.

The flight itself was okay. The seat in front of Marion was empty which was a relief for Brian and I at first. Then a big guy sat in front of me and leaned on the seat in front of Marion, making an already tight situation tighter.

She was great on the plane, never cried. But she did whine a bit and kicked the seat in front of her a few times which angered the guy sitting in front of me. Want to know how I know? Because he rolled his eyes, muttered curse words under his breath, and pushed the chair back onto Marion at one point. I'd have to say Marion was the more mature one of the two.

Although she didn't fall asleep right away, she did manage to nod off after 3 hours. She then slept through the remainder of the flight, including landing and half of the plane deboarding. We were completely amazed.

Brian also managed to get some rest. Me- not so much. On top of the big guy in front of me trying to crush my legs, I had a younger guy behind me who didn't like it when I moved (because he was trying to sleep on the food tray) and would jolt my chair everytime I tried to get comfortable. Then, everytime he got up, he used my chair for leverage. I had a great 7 hours.

After we landed, we deboarded (with the stewardesses waiting for us). We had a lot of stuff and a sleeping baby! But the stewardess behind us just looked pissed.

Anyway, we managed to get off the plane, to baggage claim, and through customs in one piece with all of our belongings. Then we found our taxi driver and Colleen and made our way to our apartment through the traffic of Zurich.

Saturday, May 31: More packing

Not much happened the day before we left. Just a lot of packing.

We did get a chance to take Marion to the pool though, even if the weather wasn't the best. She loved her new dress and hat that she received at our going away party. Thank you to the gift giver! Unfortunately I couldn't find a name on the gift to thank you personally, but please know that we love the outfit and she looks precious in it!


Enjoying the pool.

Getting splashed by Daddy.

Working on her basketball shot.

After pool time and more packing, we had a nice dinner with our families. It was great to sit outside and relax with them the night before we left. Great food, conversation, and water fighting (Erin and Brian, Erin won).

After dinner, Brian and Erin left for a night in Baltimore with some of Brian's friends from college. I finished packing and got everything ready for the next day, take off day.

Settlement Day (Friday, May 30th)

It's raining here in Switzerland, I'm waiting for Marion to wake up, and Brian has left for a meeting a work. So here I am, trying to catch up.

Settlement day was, um, interesting. A day where we tried to plan so that everything went smoothly, and then it didn't. I would say that everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but we still sold our house. So that wouldn't be true.

Anyway, it started with a 9 am settlement for the house. Except that when Brian and I were on our way to the settlement, we got a call from a realtor who was at the 8 am walkthru at our home.

Apparently the young man who bought our house was upset that we took the full length green dining room curtains. I thought this was odd, considering we excluded them from the contract because they were given to us by my mother when we bought the house. But we decided to see if he would bring it up at settlement.

The second piece of news she had for us was that the guy hadn't gone to the bank the night before but was going that morning. After the walkthru.

So he was going to be late to the settlement. On a day where we had already pushed it back from 8 am to 9 am and Brian and I were tight on time because we had a million errands to run. Wonderful.

We decided to go to settlement anyway to get the seller's paperwork done and try to speed it along. Which helped a bit, but we still ended up waiting for him.

Once he arrived, a bit past 9:30, he had a ton of questions. Which I can understand since he was a first time home buyer. But I found it especially annoying being a seller who was leaving the country in 2 days.

Good news out of the settlement: he never brought up the curtains and we settled. Bad news: we were running late when we left.

Now here's some background for the next bump on our Friday adventure. My realtor and I did some research on the best way to get cash the day of settlement to bring with us over here. She called the title company and I called Wachovia. Wachovia told me a cashiers check was best (even if it was from a different bank) so we decided to get a portion of the settlement that way and the rest would be wired.

So Brian and my next stop was to Wachovia. We arrived, waited in line, and then went to the teller giving her our cashiers check and information.

Oops, can't cash this. It's from a different bank who says they haven't issued it yet (because it wasn't in their system yet). And it isn't scanning properly.

Awesome.

So we told the teller, "We were told this would be fine by this bank last week. We need this cash today."

Response: "Nothing I can do. Try going to the other bank and cashing it."

So we left, visibly frustrated and cursing the bank under our breaths.

We then went to the mall to meet up with Brian's parents who had Marion. We had to give them the key to my sister's car, since Brian had mistakenly brought it with us and she needed it. While at the mall, I got an iPod. I'm slowly inching my way into technology. (I'm the girl who has a cellphone that is 5 years old. Well, had.)

We left the mall and went to the other bank to try and resolve the check issue. They were very nice at the other bank, a world of difference than our experience at Wachovia that morning. Unfortunately though, they couldn't help us. It was already close to afternoon and they didn't have the funds to cash the check. So back we went to Wachovia.

We walked into the Wachovia ready for battle. Asked to see a manager but was told he was out to lunch. So a financial manager (the guys that sit in the booths in suits) met with us. We told him the whole story. And he explained that his teller was doing the right thing by denying cashing of the check but that he would release half of the check to us. We explained that the only reason we were in this predicament was because someone at this branch had given us bad information last week, we had a long relationship with Wachovia, and that we needed the funds now. He agreed to shorten the hold time on the money and take the entire check.

So we ended up getting a satisfactory ending to the money saga. However it took 4 times as long as we should have, was incredibly frustrating, and it pushed all of our other errands from the morning to the afternoon.

Next stop was lunch. Arguing with Wachovia makes you hungry.

Then we went to the jewelers. I had to pick up a ring and get a new battery for my watch. Ring was done (had an engraving polished out of the inside of it), then I waited for my watch. I was promised it would be done in less than 15 minutes.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, I noticed that while they had polished out the engraving, they had also polished out the stamp saying what kind of gold it was. So I went back to the counter to get it stamped. The lady took it back and I waited. When she brought it back it was stamped, but it looked like the stamped had knicked the side of the ring. So she took it back again and I waited again. She finally brought it back, fixed.

I looked up at the clock and realized it had been 25 minutes since I gave them my watch. I went over to the watch counter and waiting in another line to see if it was done, despite my number not being on the done list. And it ended up being done. The guy working the counter had forgotten to put my number on the notification board.

So we left with one more errand completed. Next stop: picking up my car from detailing.

We arrived early and it wasn't done yet. But at this point Brian and I had eaten and had come to expect the waiting so it wasn't nearly as frustrating. Plus it was only going to be 10 more minutes.

After the car was done we took it up to my aunt's house, stopping to fill up the gas tank on the way. The car looked fantastic, they did a great job detailing it. It looked new again! Definitely something I should have done while I had the car so I got to enjoy it.

We went back to my parent's house after dropping off the car to get everything we needed for the afternoon errands. At this point we were so behind we decided to split the errands instead of Brian staying home and getting started on the work we had to get done there. So Brian took the tags to the DMV and I returned to cable box to Comcast.

Comcast. They let you cancel your account fairly quickly, but only because you then have to return your box and remote to the Comcast service center. What a racket.

There were four windows open, but only three windows were accepting equipment. The last one was accepting payments only. Typical. Funny part was that no one in line was there to give a payment, we all were carrying boxes. You'd think that the woman would then change over to help out the line, right? Wrong. She sat back and opened her magazine. That Comcast doesn't want to make you wait to pay up!

When I got there the line wasn't too bad, only 5 people ahead of me. When I got up to the front of the line though, there were 15 people behind me. I definitely go thtere at the right time. Thankfully someone appeared from the back room to elp with the line before I got up to the front though. However, it turned out that this wasn't as big of a help as you would think. A woman at one of the customer service windows was taking forever to do whatever she needed to do. I have no idea what the issue was but at one point TWO of the service reps had to figure it out, meaning that there were only 3 windows available again.

It sounds frustrating, right? But at this point I found our whole day amusing and was amazed at watching the way Comcast worked.

I finally made it to a counter (two reps still helping that woman). It took 2 minutes to drop off the box and remote and get the confirmation slip and I was out of there.

Brian's time at the DMV went a lot smoother than my trip to Comcast did. He even had time to renew his license! Shocking for the DMV on a Friday afternoon.

The rest of the day consisted of packing and cleaning our stuff from every nook and cranny of my parent's house.

I did get to go out for girl time that Friday night. It was a great break with drinks and then to see the Sex and the City movie. Drinks were fun, movie was alright. It was entertaining, but everyone got a happy ending and most of it seemed forced. So unlike SATC. But I had a great time relaxing and went right to sleep when I got home at 2 am. Had to because Saturday was going to be just as busy as Friday.

Interesting fact: this post was saved at 9:01. (Entwurf wurde gespeichert um 09:01) Blogspot is going to help me learn german. Who knew?!

Today's the day

We fly out of Philadelphia this evening. In the meantime, lots to do- including meeting my friend's new baby boy!

Next post (and all the update posts on the last few days) will be from Zurich!

We have to swim how far?

We purchased European maps for our Garmin this week and finally got around to downloading them today. I'm learning something new everyday it seems as far as technology and gadgets go. Finally got an iPod yesterday, but that's another story.

Anyway, back to the maps. Apparently you download the information onto the computer and then transfer it to your GPS unit. Pretty cool stuff! So, what do we do? We enter our new address and hit enter. Garmin starts to calculate.


And calculate.


And then it stopped.


Apparently swimming across the Atlantic isn't an option for Garmin.

Moving Day

I'm finally getting around to posting about Moving Day 2 days later. Did I mention we've been busy?

Thursday morning, Brian got up to meet the movers at the house. I stayed home with Marion to take her to the doctors. She had/has an ear infection. So we met up with Brian at the house after Marion's doctor appointment and after Brian and the movers got started. On the way to the house, Marion started saying (or maybe it was singing?) "Go see home!" over and over again. My stress level quadrupled in anticipation of the separation anxiety to come.

When we arrived, the movers had already rolled our their red carpet (nice touch!) and packed up most of the house,



in a big truck blocking most of our street.


Marion really could not have cared less. We did the bye-bye thing, or at least tried. Mostly she just swatted in the direction of the house, muttering bye-bye as she ran around and played. So, it appears, I was stressed over nothing. Go figure.

Since most of our things had been packed up in the truck already, we left to run errands and pick up Marion's medicine.



(mover guy pondering if our stuff will fit in this truck. it did.)

The movers were done packing up our house by noon. They left for lunch and met us at my parent's house a little after one.

Everything went smoothly from there. Nothing broken, nothing missing, and everything fit in my parent's basement.


Can't take credit for everything in those pictures, some items to the right in both pictures are not ours. But we did take up a fairly large portion of the basement.

Also, they were done by 4, earlier than expected. And the movers couldn't have been nicer- they did a great job. Brian and I are spoiled now. I can't imagine moving ourselves ever again!

After the move was completed, Brian and I were able to relax (a smidge) before running some errands and heading over to our house (at that time) to do a last run through. The house looked fantastic. Kind of like how I bought it 5 years ago, but a nicer looking sister.

After some quiet walking and reflecting through the house, I locked it up and went with Brian to neighbor's house a couple of doors down, talking to other neighbors along the way. A great way to end the day, having fun with our neighbors. We had great neighbors, they definitely made the block. And we will certainly miss all of them!

BGE & Communication

When I canceled our Baltimore, Gas & Electric service I was told that someone would come on May 29th between 8 and 12 to get our final meter reading. Which was great timing because the movers were at the house then and we would need to be there anyway.

So the movers finished this morning and Brian waited. Thankfully, we are busy so Brian and I decided if BGE hadn't shown up by 12:15 then we weren't going to continue to wait.

But that didn't stop me from calling them.

After a longer wait on the phone than Comcast but not as long as Verizon, I was speaking to a customer service rep. She informed me that because the new owner had requested service at the address after we canceled, BGE did not require a visit to get a meter reading.

Nice, thanks for letting us know.

Busy, busy week

Lots to catch up on!

Last Thursday my work had a going away dinner for Brian and I. We had a lot of fun hanging out and it was a great way to start the long weekend.

Then we packed. No need to discuss the craziness and pain of that. But the weekend was sprinkled with fun in between the packing. Friday night we had dinner with our friends Heather and Tom. Saturday was dinner and crepes with friends Steve and Sarah. And Sunday was a Memorial Day cookout at Steve and Sarah's house.

Memorial Day was spent packing some more. Painful, painful packing. I was so exhausted and sore that I pretty much tapped out by noon. I was useless. I'm sure Brian will say the same (he wasn't very happy with me).

However, the holiday did end on an up note. Crabs with my parents and grandmother! At the end of the night, we moved in with Mom and Dad. Back with the 'rents.

Tuesday after work Brian and I attended a going away happy hour given by Brian's work. Lots of fun with plenty of jokes about Brian killing computers. Apparently he has gone through five laptops in four and a half years? A record for the office I believe. I think it has something to do with his power typing.

Wednesday brought Brian and I our last days of work. Can't believe they came so quickly. That evening we met friends Steve and Jesse for dinner. They return from their travels around the world as we take off for ours. Poor planning.

Today's moving day. Pictures to come later, haven't downloaded them yet. Tonight, haircut, hanging out with neighbors, and my in laws arrive.

Tomorrow's settlement and transfer of my car. And about a million other things. I'll be driving all over Baltimore dropping things off, picking them up, yadda yadda yadda. Hopefully we'll be able to fit in a Ms Julie performance at the mall for Marion. Ms Julie's a local preschool performer and Marion loves her. Evidence of Marion's love: Ms Julie is a popular answer for many different questions.

Example:
Q: Marion, what do you want to buy at the store?
A: Ms Julie!

Q: Marion, who did you see this morning?
A: Ms Julie!

Nope honey, you saw a doctor this morning. A doctor because you have an ear infection. Three days before we leave the country. On a pressurized aircraft. Wonderful.

Saturday, more packing. And hopefully some pool time. That would be nice.

Sunday, I hope we have time for the farmer's market. It's one of my favorite things to do in Baltimore. Then we'll leave for the airport by noon. After that, well, we'll just have to see!

We survived the long weekend.

But we still tired.

You know how I know? I just typed "we still tired." Yikes.

We still have a little bit of finishing to do. But that can wait. Until when you ask? Not really sure. Our schedules, like the past week or so, are filled to the brim.

But it will get done. It always does.

Status: Packing. We're tired.

We've been packing for two days now. Packing, and packing, and packing, and... well, you get the point. There still doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

I think what is taking us so long is that, while packing, we have to figure out what to take to Switzerland with us and what to put in storage. And, as usual, I want to take alot more than we have luggage for. So it is a constant editing process of stuff.


However, we did purchase new luggage for our move. Isn't it pretty?
Well, as pretty as luggage gets.

On a completely different note, our irises have bloomed. I love them. So pretty.


Pretty on their own. Our garden looks horrible, no time to weed lately. The new guy will learn about the joys of home ownership pretty fast. No better way, right?

What are you doing this holiday weekend?

We're packing. A lot. Back to work before the slave driver, aka Brian, gets mad. Pictures to come later, if we ever get out from underneath all of our stuff...

A sad farewell

My first car, affectionately known as Rosie, is gone.

Some of you may know her as the Mr. Incredible car, an alias for her since Brian started driving her.

Rosie and I had some great times together since I brought her home in October 2002. One of my fondest memories is bringing Marion home from the hospital in Rosie. A newborn, a woman recovering from surgery and childbirth, gifts, and gear all chauffered by Brian in that little hatchback. I moved on to a new car in July 2006, but she still held a place in my heart.

But it was time for her to move on. So, we handed her off to a college aged girl from Virginia who was quite excited to get her this morning.

Farewell Rosie!

Do you see what I see? ----------------------->

A single digit countdown. Holy crap. And my house is an absolute pig sty. A mess from top to bottom.

And I'm adding something to my "Isn't that odd?" list. We've known about this move since the end of September. Yet most of the things we have to do in preparation happens in the last week. Go figure. We have a lot to do before now and next Sunday.