So I've packed, unpacked, repacked. Unpacked, repacked. Finally got everything into the luggage today! Then I weighed it all. The big one was 9 pounds over. So a little more unpacking, repacking... After taking out one item at a time and reweighing over and over, I finally got it under the limit! I guess I did not really need all 7 pair of shoes, multiple hardback books, and 5 pair of jeans, but it would've been nice... (notice I did not remove any painting/art paraphernalia - priorities!)
The puppies are gone. I took them to the kids yesterday. It's very quiet around here. Just sitting on my cozy couch listening to the rain. Need to pick up a few things around the house, then I'm off to bed!
Tomorrow one of my lovely friends will be picking me up and driving me to the airport - after we grab some lunch and have a good, last gab-fest.
Guess I'm off. The sooner I get to sleep, the sooner it'll be time to fly! Now, I just hope I'll actually be able to fall asleep.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Counting down!
Two days of work to go. Correction: two VERY BUSY days of work to go! I'm trying to get everything ready to turn over to whoever will be taking over my position when I leave my "day job" to head to Switzerland. So, today flew by. (I love that.) Too bad it promptly took a nosedive...
I was walking a potential replacement back to HR when I heard the first tornado siren. Then the rain kicked in. And the wind kicked up...
I finished up around the office and decided to make a break for it. Mark's flight was today and I had to meet a friend at the house - he was taking me to the airport to pick up Mark's car. I had my handy little umbrella, but it was no match at all for the torential downpour. I was soaked up to my knees before I got 1/4 of the way to my car (did I mention I was not sure exactly where my car was?) Thank goodness a good samaritan co-worked gave me a lift the rest of the way to my car. I hopped in and headed home! Unfortunately, something jumped out of the rain and attacked my tire. (OK, maybe I just ran over something in the middle of the road, whatever.) I drove a bit further and decided that yeah, I definitely had a flat tire. But hey, I'm a big girl. How hard can it be to change my own flat tire? I pulled over into some random person's driveway (for some reason they wouldn't answer the door when I knocked- am I really that scary when I'm completely drenched and angry?) and proceeded to dig out the spare. In the pouring rain. Under a giant tree. In the middle of lightening and a tornado siren.
Apparently spare tires are screwed down inside the trunk - and you just need to use your tire iron to undo the little nut. But sometimes your tiny little tire iron slips down UNDER the tire. That would be the same tire that is screwed into the trunk on top of the tool... You can see where this is going. So I called our friend that was meeting me at the house. He grabbed some tools and came to rescue me. He was able to get the tire out. Too bad it was flat, too. I'm guessing he was boyscout in a previous life, because he had actually thought to grab a pump before he headed out into the monsoon. He manually inflated my flat spare, slapped it onto the car and then we were off! At a whopping 45 miles per hour. But we made it. No tornadoes, no more flats, no problems getting Mark's car home. Now I'm home - all warm and cozy with my crazy puppies.
Wish I could say the same for Mark. He's stuck in a hotel in Atlanta. He missed his connecting flight and won't actually be off to Switzerland until tomorrow.
I was walking a potential replacement back to HR when I heard the first tornado siren. Then the rain kicked in. And the wind kicked up...
I finished up around the office and decided to make a break for it. Mark's flight was today and I had to meet a friend at the house - he was taking me to the airport to pick up Mark's car. I had my handy little umbrella, but it was no match at all for the torential downpour. I was soaked up to my knees before I got 1/4 of the way to my car (did I mention I was not sure exactly where my car was?) Thank goodness a good samaritan co-worked gave me a lift the rest of the way to my car. I hopped in and headed home! Unfortunately, something jumped out of the rain and attacked my tire. (OK, maybe I just ran over something in the middle of the road, whatever.) I drove a bit further and decided that yeah, I definitely had a flat tire. But hey, I'm a big girl. How hard can it be to change my own flat tire? I pulled over into some random person's driveway (for some reason they wouldn't answer the door when I knocked- am I really that scary when I'm completely drenched and angry?) and proceeded to dig out the spare. In the pouring rain. Under a giant tree. In the middle of lightening and a tornado siren.
Apparently spare tires are screwed down inside the trunk - and you just need to use your tire iron to undo the little nut. But sometimes your tiny little tire iron slips down UNDER the tire. That would be the same tire that is screwed into the trunk on top of the tool... You can see where this is going. So I called our friend that was meeting me at the house. He grabbed some tools and came to rescue me. He was able to get the tire out. Too bad it was flat, too. I'm guessing he was boyscout in a previous life, because he had actually thought to grab a pump before he headed out into the monsoon. He manually inflated my flat spare, slapped it onto the car and then we were off! At a whopping 45 miles per hour. But we made it. No tornadoes, no more flats, no problems getting Mark's car home. Now I'm home - all warm and cozy with my crazy puppies.
Wish I could say the same for Mark. He's stuck in a hotel in Atlanta. He missed his connecting flight and won't actually be off to Switzerland until tomorrow.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
The Artistic Traveler - at it again
Here I go again - another attempt at starting a blog. What is this, number 3? Number 4? Anyway - this should be the last one. Really. I mean it.
So here's the reason I'm starting again. TIME TO TRAVEL! Yes, we are off to Switzerland. We are scheduled to be there for about 90 days. My husband heads out tomorrow - I leave about a week later. I need to finish up the last few days of my job, and then take care of a few more things around the house (dogs, packing, studying German! etc.) We are very excited! Who knew you could pick up and move to another country with 2 weeks' notice? Apparently you can.
What will we be doing in Switzerland? What has caused me to leave a stable job in a very unstable economy? Well - I will be painting! Painting, visiting museums and galleries, and basically being the Den Mother for a group of guys that are going over with my husband for a work assignment. So expect to see lots of photos of potential paintngs, as well as my random photos of things that just entertain me. Now I just need to figure out if we'll have internet in our apartment, or if I'll be hanging out at the local internet cafes. That will obviously determine my blogging frequency.
ART UPDATE!
As I mentioned, I will be focusing on painting over the next few months. But I'm also working on some Bicycle Art. I have a few rough paintings on my Etsy site - but those are just the beginning. I'm actually currently working on a very cool metal embossing technique that I hope to have perfected and listed by the time we get back this summer. First attempts were fun and impressive. I'm also playing around with copper tubing again, and have some high hopes for large format pieces. I even have some relief carvings in clay that are patiently waiting to be fired in the studio. Can't wait to really get started!
So here's the reason I'm starting again. TIME TO TRAVEL! Yes, we are off to Switzerland. We are scheduled to be there for about 90 days. My husband heads out tomorrow - I leave about a week later. I need to finish up the last few days of my job, and then take care of a few more things around the house (dogs, packing, studying German! etc.) We are very excited! Who knew you could pick up and move to another country with 2 weeks' notice? Apparently you can.
What will we be doing in Switzerland? What has caused me to leave a stable job in a very unstable economy? Well - I will be painting! Painting, visiting museums and galleries, and basically being the Den Mother for a group of guys that are going over with my husband for a work assignment. So expect to see lots of photos of potential paintngs, as well as my random photos of things that just entertain me. Now I just need to figure out if we'll have internet in our apartment, or if I'll be hanging out at the local internet cafes. That will obviously determine my blogging frequency.
ART UPDATE!
As I mentioned, I will be focusing on painting over the next few months. But I'm also working on some Bicycle Art. I have a few rough paintings on my Etsy site - but those are just the beginning. I'm actually currently working on a very cool metal embossing technique that I hope to have perfected and listed by the time we get back this summer. First attempts were fun and impressive. I'm also playing around with copper tubing again, and have some high hopes for large format pieces. I even have some relief carvings in clay that are patiently waiting to be fired in the studio. Can't wait to really get started!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)