Condo-rific

The condo is looking pretty naked. Art, gone. Furniture, gone. Books, bar cart, Scrabble board, gone, gone, gone. It worked out perfectly that BW's cousin, E, is moving to the Twin Cities to be none other than... da da ta da... an English teacher! Thanks to her willingness to take our stuff, we won't even have to rent a storage unit while we're gone. AND she just got back from doing her student teaching in Slovenia - how's that for compatible?!

Getting the condo ready for renters has taken a lot more muscle than I'd expected. Aside from the standard packing and cleaning, we repainted most of the whole 758 square feet (thanks to Coach for helping!), made a lot of minor repairs, and are working toward polishing all the floors.

Painted ladies!

We even hired handyman Russ (Amazing Husband Handyman Service) to do things we couldn't, like replace a breaker and glaze a window. Nice guy, and interesting. He went to school for music in Manhattan and played in a symphony in Mexico a while back.

http://www.russelldedrick.com

Lastly, I've been trying to eat whatever is in the freezer and cupboards before we move out because my parents drilled into me that wasting food is akin to arson or extortion. So this was breakfast two days ago:

Delectable.

Next stop: an overnight in Minneapolis for our first anniversary and then a few days at BW's parents' home in Burnsville, as well as his cousin's wedding. Looking forward to some time with the W clan!

Love you guys!

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Fourty-four

My friend HBelle has double-jointed elbows, so I think it makes perfect sense if I ask whether Czechs have double-jointed soft palates. How else would they be able to say things like...

Where is the nearest dentist?

~ or ~

I am allergic to dairy products.

This particular sentence, which means "Has my money arrived yet?" has more Zs than I can handle and sounds indubitably perverse in Czech: 

But the queen of all tongue-twisters is the number four thousand, four-hundred and fourty-four. My online Czech flashcard program only goes up to 44, though, and here it is:

 I feel dizzy. I mean, "Mam zavrat."    

     *sigh*

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How not to clean your windows

How not to clean your windows in anticipation of a renter before you move:

1) Open them to take the storm windows out, assuming the last owner or five cleaned the windows at some point. Find out you were sorely mistaken.

2) Chip/scrub/wipe away layers of grime, ancient duct tape, muck, petrified insects, etc.

I'll name this petrified window inhabitant Lady Anne Boleyn 

3) Close windows and hose them down from the outside with Windex Outdoor attachment. Get as soaked as the windows, as hose leaks worse than the Titanic.

4) Grab a spray bottle of blue liquid from under the sink, assuming it's glass cleaner. Use product on inside windows and storm windows to remove a film of dust and goodness-knows-what.

5) Become confused as to why inside windows and storm windows are suddenly clouded and streaky.

6) Look at bottle of blue liquid and realize it's organic carpet stain remover.

7) Rewash half the windows and then sit down to watch Gangs of New York with husband.

Cloudy upper-left carpet-cleaner window. Ugh.

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Pet Hospital Homies

Even though J-dog is ill or gets a shot every time she has a vet appointment, she still loves going to see Danielle, Dr. Eric and the rest of the team at St Paul Pet Hospital. When we meander down Dayton Ave. from our place for a visit, J takes her sweet time, pausing to water every single tree and announce to squirrels in her line of sight that if I wasn't on this leash, I would own you little rodents! As we approach Western where St Paul Pet is located, her butt goes into super-waggle and her floofy white tail starts to helicopter, squirrels and tree-pee completely forgotten. Today, her minuscule and muscly 10-lb. self literally pulled me right through the door as she strained to greet Courtney and chill with her hospital homies.

Today's appointment was for a Distemper shot and blood work to verify she is heartworm-free so the Czech Republic will allow her in. Our last visit will be on Aug. 1, when she gets all official paperwork finalized and a pill that will make her drowsy for the flight. Thanks to the St Paul Pet family for helping us through this process!

a purple pooch bandage

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Pasties and matrimony

It's a loooooong drive through Wisconsin to the U.P. of Michigan. Some things we saw on the way: Gus's Guns. Numerous collapsed barns. A beach with E.Coli. Cows humping. Pastie shops (pronounced like the "a" in "yeah," not to be confused with exotic dancer attire).

Bessie's pasties were the innocent kind

We traversed to Michigan for cousin A's wedding, which was not only the perfect chance to celebrate her and new hubby, but also to see family before moving across the pond.

BW, J-dog and I met my parents and sister, a.k.a. the wombat, in Escanaba, MI; she had flown to Grand Forks a few days earlier from Tacoma and ridden up with them. We camped out at this great little throwback ma-and-pa place called Sunset Lodge and picnicked along the too-beautiful-for-words shore of Lake Michigan for dinner.

J-dog and her pet on the shore of Lake Michigan

The wombat on her perch

The next morning we made it to St. Ignace, where we hung out with rellies and took a ferry to Mackinac Island for some Colonial history. No motorized vehicles are allowed on the island, so aside from feet, bikes and horses are the only modes of transit. The whole place is amazingly preserved from the 19th century and contains copious amounts of fudge shops, much to my waistline's chagrin.

Quaint Mackinac Island

Mom's multi-pack of fuuuuudge

Ferry-goers

The wedding was a lovely pinkyellowgreen affair with lake waves sparkling and fluttering as a backdrop for the ceremony and a party under a lantern-filled tent. A was the quintessential sugar-spun bride, save for purple hair streaks, cowboy boots and a new tattoo, all nods to what her mother calls "her need to always be a little bit different."

How's THAT for a backdrop?

Yeehaw! (A. lives in Texas)

Cousin reunion!

Dad, mom and niece of the beautiful bride

While the weekend was all kinds of fun, the last place I wanted to be this morning was standing in a hotel parking, saying a tearful goodbye to my parents, who we won't see for another entire year. Leaving people we love is definitely the biggest downside.

Miss you guys already...

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Google makes everything easier

As we've been running around like headless chickens trying to tie up loose ends and see as many people as possible, our boxes have been relaxedly meandering by rail from Chicago to Norfolk, VA, where they'll be loaded on a boat bound for Europe. Our bicycles, cookware and winter jackets are chilling at a shipping terminal - literally. We can track the shipment online (see below), which helps quell our concerns about the lot being plundered by pirates or sucked into a cyclone.

A friend recently asked how we navigated the world of freight shipping, and all I could really say was, "Google." And then I realized that in the past couple of days, I've Googled "how to fix a dishwasher that won't drain", "Theory of Knowledge teaching resources", "what to wear with sneaker wedges", and "did Woody Allen write What's New Pussycat?"

Seriously, how did I survive before internet search engines?

Tracking our belongings...

This Woody Allen movie is one of the strangest things I've ever seen

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Cayenne, Ziplocs and Carmex

It used to be impossible to find things like peanut butter, Skittles and baking powder in the Czech Republic 5 years ago. Apparently this has changed; Mars Co. is now a player in the market (hellllooo Butterfingers!) and "ethnic" goods like Mexican tortilla chips are popping up in grocery stores. This information comes from discussion threads on an expat website. I posted a question about American goods I should pack, and these were some suggestions:

Decent Ziploc bags
Old Bay seasoning
Kraft macaroni and cheese
Decaf tea

Carmex

Anything cinnamon-flavored (floss, toothpaste, Jolly Ranchers, etc.)
Cayenne

Cumin

Ranch dressing mix

Anything Zatarian’s for Cajun food

Tabasco

Thank heavens someone mentioned Carmex, because nothing works as good on the old kisser as that stuff! On to Target to buy a few (dozen) tubes!

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