My daily thoughts, rants and whining …
… about life as we make it happen, my life as an expat, our move from France back to the US, and just my innocent ponderings about things that bug me …

Good grief it has been a while!

No excuse except a horrible busy time and a trapped nerve in my right elbow so it’s very painful to type.

What has happened the past few weeks?

Well, we became foster parents of mom cat and 7!! kittens, at the moment they’re 6 weeks old and cute as a button. We’re fostering for the regional cat shelter called Cat Adoption Team, the have about 300 cats at the moment and kitten season is about to start. They expect to be processing about 1300 kittens this season and find homes for all. Isn’t that just a crazy figure? I know for my Dutch and European readers this must sound ridiculous but believe me it’s more that common here in the US.

This shelter is a no-kill shelter which means they accept cats without killing them after 4 days of hold, because that’s the legal time a dog or cat needs to be hold in a shelter here before it is put down. By fostering we free up space at the shelter and give these kittens a chance of a normal life by socializing them from day one.
After 8 weeks they leave, they’re ready to be spayed or neutered and go to their new families. It’ so much fun, you get to enjoy kittens and they actually leave again, what’s not to like?

Here are 6 of them, aren’t they fun?!

I have a cat blog in the hope to get them more exposure and maybe get some families interested in them. if you want to see more pics, a movie and stories go to Cat-a-Blog

We also became parents of a kitten of our own. For years I wanted to have a special cat, a Devon Rex. I think they’re extremely cute. They have a special type of fur, it’s weavy and short and it feels like velvet or suede. Now our beloved Minou died when we lived in France(thank you so much horrible hunters!) we wanted to have a new kitty and a Devon was high on my list. W. objected at first because of the already cat over population here, he felt we should have adopted a homeless cat but I feel I already do a lot to help the homeless cats.
I’m allergic to dust and molds etc so having a cat with a short fur does actually helps reduce my allergies.

So 2 weeks ago our kitten arrived by plane. She a female, black and white and her name is :
Nyx Du-a-Gwyn of DazzlmeCatz

Translation:
Nyx – Goddess of the night

Du – Black (Welsh)

a – and (Welsh)

Gwyn – white (Welsh)

So translated it reads Black and White Goddess of the Night.

She will be called Nyx or little Helter Skelter on wheels.

Here’s pic of Nyx.

I know some people think they’re ugly but we all got our own preferences don’t we? I think she’s adorable and beautiful and yes she’s as naughty as she looks, she’s a real acrobat. Will post some more pics this week.

–

Not much happening the last few days, we both are taking it easy. W. works from home since his office at Intel is almost empty. People are enjoying their holidays.

I discovered a Ikea book case in the craigslist, for those of you who do not know what the craiglist is, it’s a community based website where people sell, trade, donate, adopt, give away stuff, find homes for rent, for sale and swap. The craigslist is the answer to all your wishes.

I already have a couple of the same book cases and was waiting to go to Ikea which is located in Seattle a 3 hour drive from us to buy some new ones so I can finally empty the last boxes with books. I came across one on the craigslist for $40, funnily enough the girl who was selling it was moving to Europe :-0 You always meet fun people this way.

Another great source to meet people is the freecycle lists, every town in the US seems to have one. The freecycle you post things you give away for free and you can also post wanted ads. It’s a heavy traffic list, I think there are at least a 300 messages a day. It really helped us to get rid of our moving boxes, and freed up space in the garage, the movers came buy to pick up the rest and the really good ones I gave away. I met someone from our neighborhood who came buy to pick up a dog treat ball that we weren’t using anymore because it makes an awful noise on hardwood floors and a fun gal who came to pick up a blind we had and that was the right size for her window. We’re still emailing.

Last week we bought from the craigslist a beautiful LARGE oak country kitchen table, real oak, not that fancy fake laminate stuff. It came with 6 beautiful royal blue velour chairs. It fits great in our breakfast area and W. and I can now both read the newspaper at the same time and still have room for our coffee cups and breakfast. It sits in front of the big window where we can watch the birds and the squirrels at the same time. We’ve looked at new tables but couldn’t find anything that looked a bit rustic, it all looked too smooth and new. This one is great and it has a leaf so we can extend it if needed.

Will post some pics soon. Well almost New Years Eve, hope there will be no fireworks, it will upset the dogs.

If I don’t post tomorrow, we’re wishing you all a very happy, healthy 2006, may all your wishes come true and may this year be filled with joy, laughter and happiness!

Peace!

Isn’t it strange how time flies when you’re older? Almost another year gone, seems like I just blinked with my eyes and it’s end of December again.

A year ago we spend the Holidays in Holland, rented a cute little holiday home close to the beach in Zeeland.

Our daughter Lydia and her lovely partner Rene spend 2 days with us and we had loads of fun.

As you can see from this pic of our dog Lotte is _was_ cold and windy

W. was in negotiation with Intel and Google while we were there and had to go to the library every day to have access to his email 2 weeks later he was on a plane to California and Oregon to talk with both intel and Google. It was a very exciting period, exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Both companies made him an interesting offer, both with equally interesting positions, Google located in Santa Monica in SoCal was very nice and an exciting place to live and work but too expensive and too hot for us. So we choose Intel in Oregon because we always had wanted to live in Oregon, all the good stuff from California but not the crazy housing market and the flaming hot temperatures.

Well the rest is history, we set to work, relocating again oversees, I truly think I can write a book about how to move oversees and how to settle in. Maybe I should

2005 has gone by in a blur, all was focussed on the move and buying a home in our new country. It’s hard to believe we managed to pull it all off, here we are settled in, a new car, new home, all furnished and decorated, a new job. I think we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.

I always had problems dealing with a New Year, all tis broo-ha-ha about a fresh start and resolutions never really spoke to me but this time I can’t wait for the new year to start and finally start living a ‘normal’ life again after a full year between boxes, lists, forms and plans. I’m ready to celebrate, come on in 2006!!

First of all a pic from your front door, isn’t it exciting

The next one is a view from our front door to the neighbors across the street.

And than the batteries of my camera went out, so have to buy new ones first.

Today was a day off for some, W. had the day off because Christmas was on a Sunday this year but a lot of other people had to work just like a regular Monday.
We went to Portland today, my first time in 3 months, jay! The weather wasn’t too good so we opted to visit the world famous Powells bookstore. Oh my gosh, I never seen a bookstore like that in my life! It was amazing! Of course I read about it but you’ll never know until you’ve experienced it.

It’s called The City of Books and rightly so! It covers an entire city block three floors deep, claims to be the world’s largest bookstore. Those books, roughly three-quarters of a million at any given time, are shelved side by side–well-thumbed old paperbacks next to the latest hardcover books–which is why browsing is what Powell’s is all about. City of Books is even bigger than that; it has several satellite stores. There’s Powell’s Technical Bookstore, Powell’s Books for Cooks and Gardeners and more.

I could have spend easily the whole day there. *sigh* I came out of the store with ‘only’ 5 books, not too bad at all I behaved! Next time I’ll go to the Cooking and Gardening store!

Just as we left the store it started pouring so we drove around, sightseeing and taking in the tourist. It’s hard to believe we actually live here, Portland is such an exciting individualistic kind of town, you hardly ever see people wearing the latest fashion, everyone wears what he /she is comfortable with. On a cold day you can easily spot a fur coat next to a guy wearing shorts. I love it!
The health conscious(organic) eating and buying local is LARGE here, farmers markets are open all year and even restaurants serve food locally grown and organic. It’s absolutely the place I feel at home and comfortable.

View of Portland with in the background the wonderful Mt.Hood

I have been pretty lame when it came to keeping this blog up to date, in my defense I can say that I have been ill for a long time. I guess all the stress of moving an buying a home has put me into a full flare. I knew it was going to happen because I did and could not take care of myself the way I should have. Sometimes you just have to push beyond your limitations to get things done.

Anyway, we’re kind of settled The house is starting to look like a home, the floors are absolutely gorgeous, we found a beautiful area rug that compliments the floor with wonderful colors. The couch we bought is beyond belief. I know everyone told us we were crazy to buy stuff directly from the factory but it has been an amazing experience. We could choose the basic style and than choose the seating, firm, soft, or whatever our preference, the fabric, the colors, the feet etc….. We choose what they call a reverse camel-back, chocolate brown micro fiber, feels like suede and it’s the most amazing fabric ever. It’s great if you have dogs, you just wipe everything off and it’s like new. The price was an absolute bargain and the delivery time was only 3 weeks, they make the stuff on order.

As a accent color we choose soft gray-blue, cream and very soft pink. So with the dark brown hardwood floor, the chocolate brown couch and chairs and the milk chocolate/latte walls it just looks stunning. I’m a very happy puppy. W. choose the tv, a beautiful flat screen HD Sony, not too big we do not want an overpowering tv in our room, and we got of course the DVDR TiVo box and Satellite tv.
it’s all coming together and we’re almost at the same level we were in France.

The moving company lost our hardware for the dining room table and desks so we had to do without that. They’re suppose to deliver it any time soon, but still have not seen it.

W. has been going to work a few days a week and works from home 2 or 3 days. He really needs some time to adjust that he now has to go to an office instead of working from home. He has to deal with a commute and needs to get up real early instead of starting the day at 9:00 AM Life is hard

We put up the Christmas lights last week, I guess we had to go with the flow, all the neighbors are decorating their homes big time and we didn’t want to stay behind. Unfortunately one of the lights we bought turned out to the blue so we now have an interesting looking home I guess the neighbors will say ‘Oh what do you expect, they’re foreigners huh’ Sometimes it comes in handy

It seems we’re moving forward and all is going well with the closing on the home. Got a call from Tom, our mortgage person at the Credit Union who coordinates the buying process, that we’re scheduled to sign the papers at the escrow office on Tuesday next week. The funding will be released on wednesday which will make us the legal owners. Jay! Our first home…… it’s so exciting!
We know that if we hadn’t make this move we would never have bought a home in France, just because we didn’t feel at home and had doubts we wanted to stay there for a long time.

Last Saturday we had our first dinner invite. W.’s manager invited us to his home to meet his family and have dinner. It was a wonderful evening, Roger and Jalene and both very down to earth people and they made us feel at home right away. We had an embarrasing moment when Lotte pooped in the livingroom, I guess we can blame that on excitement. In all her 10 years she never has done that before. Luckily they were very relaxed about it all, they just lost their 2 dogs so they’re dog people

Ordered my espresson machine today, got a wonderful deal at cooking.com and got $100 off the regular price, that left me room to order a toaster, rice cooker and tea kettle from the same brand.(Breville) Feeling very budget concious today

Got a call from Lizzette our shipping person, she told us that our shipment has successfully passed customs in Portland and is almost ready to be delivered. Apparently it arrived in Portland 3 weeks ago and has been in transit ever since. She asked me about a condiment set that was packed, the customs officers were worried I did not empty the canisters, but I did and I knew it was not permitted to import spices and herbs. This was a new condiment set, one of my fifties kitchenware collection. They would have had great difficulties locating it I think, it’s tiny and lord knows where it’s packed. Would the rip open every box just to find a salt and pepper holder with salt in it? Probably

But the timing is right, we’re almost done with the home and ready for our stuff.
Can’t wait!

Sorry I’ve been quiet over the past weeks. I’m finally back online. Internet didn’t work as it should.
We had two hectic weeks of house hunting and car hunting and we both came down with the flu. Guess we picked that up on the airplane, although our real estate agent also greeted us sniffling and coughing saying she had a cold. Well, gheez,…. thanks so much!

Looking at homes shivering with fever is no fun at all I’ll tell you! But we did manage to find something we’d liked and we made an offer. We’re now waiting to close on the property and hope to be able to move in in 2 weeks.
But even though we were shivering with fever we had to do the home search and look for a car to buy. W. had 2 weeks of vacation before he had to start work and we truly needed those days.

I think we saw at least a 30 homes in 1 week, all nice but all had something we didn’t like.
Too cluttered, to small, no back yard, not a good neighborhood etc. I have never seen so much diversity in neighborhoods as here in the Portland area. One street with homes can be fine and the next one can be all run down even though the majority of homes were nice.
It was hard to see beyond the clutter. I hate clutter, it makes my skin crawl. It give me a nasty feeling to see and walk around in other people’s dirt. In some houses I was so nausea that I wanted to run out screaming, it almost feel like a phobia.

It always bothers me in hotel rooms too. I have a hard time sleeping in hotel beds, I imagine other people’s bugs crawling on my skin and I’m disgusted if I find a hair or so in the bathroom or in the bed.

So the homes we looked at needed to be clean in order for me to consider them.

The last house we saw spoke to us, it had everything we needed, recently renovated and updated, all new appliances, you know those stainless steel look, it had mainly hardwood floors, a sunroom, large trees in the yard(my wish) and it was empty. and clean. The neighborhood is nice and old and although I would have preferred to more outside the city this was a very well established and older area. The home is from 1971 so it’s not that old. So we made an offer, the asking price, and asked 5000 towards closing costs, they refused and countered with upping the price with 2500 and giving 5000 in closing, so we still had some money towards the closing cost.

We’re now waiting to close on the home, the appraisal was Tuesday and we’re waiting for the results to come in, kind of exciting!

The home is a 3 bed/2bath with a sunroom, living, formal dining/family room and breakfast nook. Lost of wildlife in the backyard such a beautiful birds and squirrels., It’s in Beaverton, outside the Portland boundaries.

Pictures from the outside are here is you want to have a look. We do not have the keys yet so no inside pics.

http://homepage.mac.com/tinkbelle/PhotoAlbum12.html

We also bought the car we really liked, a Saab 9.5 wagon. It’s a wonderful car with ventilated and heated leather seats and split heating/cooling system so the driver and the passenger can have separate temp.settings So luxurious. W. really really likes it.
The dogs are happy as well as they have a large area at the back, and it’s one of the safest cars on the planet.

All is all I haven’t had much time to go out and look around or do some serious book shopping. Right now we’re staying in our temp. apartment and our smaller dog, Lotte, suffers from separation anxiety. Every time we leave her alone she screams loud enough to upset everyone within a block or 2. So I have to stay at home with her because W. has the car and I don’t have my US license yet.

It’s strange though, being here, it’s like we never left or just returned from a long vacation. I’m so thankful to be back here in this country. The NorthWest Pacific is beautiful, we took a short drive towards the coast and were at the beach in 35 minutes. Beautiful beach, high waves and doggies welcome on the beach.

All the familiar stores are here, food is familiar etc. One thing that is refreshing is the customer service and the way things are taking care of. Everything happens so fast and everyone is so polite and helpful What a breeze after dealing with unfriendly/hostile/slow people in France! I so appreciate the fact that I do not have to bag my own groceries!

After the closing on the home and we have the keys the people who are going to rip out the (new)carpet and lay the hardwood can get started. We are buying some lovely wooden(cherry) blinds all throughout the house that they will install at the same time.

The new washer and dryer that I have my eyes on will be delivered and installed plus the new fridge. I’ve chosen Amana as brand for my appliances, they had really good review at the consumer.org website and they’re reasonably priced and have some great new features.
Anama is part of Maytag but is more design and a bit more upscale. It has stainless steel tubes for instance instead of the normal plastic ones.

Thanks to my Border Collie friend Mary Ann I bought my wonderful new vacuum, the Lindhaus Pro. It’s an upright vacuum and this brand was used for the anthrax clean up in Washington. So we can trust the filter to be airtight and sufficient for allergy suffers like myself. I couldn’t wait to try it out and it works wonderful, it’s so quiet and it goes effortless from carpet to bare floors. I was seriously doubting between the Sebo and the Lindhaus but the Lindhaus came with a bare floor felt attachment and that did it for me.

I can’t wait for things to get back to normal. Our belongings should arrive in 2 weeks, in time for our move in and that would be a relief, I’m fed up with living out of a suitcase!

Tuesday Oct 3 Pacific time.

Where to start? I haven’t had internet access for a while so I’m way behind.
I’ll give the short version and keep it up to date from here.

Saturday Sept 30;
We drove to Amsterdam and delivered the dogs to the KLM Pet Hotel where they will stay for 2 days before flying. I was pretty nervous and emotional about the whole thing, but everything went smooth. A kennel worker came to pick them up at the office without any fuss, no saying goodbye, just walked away. Just as well because they can get upset. We were taking care of adminstrative stuff like airway bills etc and before we knew it they were gone.
We than checked in the Sheraton Hotel for the night, which has direct access to the airport and no need to walk or drive to it. We checked in online ahead so we didn’t need to wait in line for check in the next day. Suitcases could be dropped off next day at a special counter. All in all the whole check in procedure took us 5 minutes instead of the usual 2 hours waiting in line.
Hotel was very luxurious with marble bathroom and down matress and pillows, so we slept like babies and woke up all rested.

Sunday Oct 1-2;
Woke up feeling excited, a feeling of going home, not at all sad of leaving Europe behind us.
Security was a breeze, we were through it in 2 minutes and I could board ahead because I am a special needs traveller. We flew with the Airbus 330-300 which has private video consoles, seating was pretty good, meals were excellent, crew was polite and friendly. It took us 10 hours and 20 minutes from Amsterdam to Seattle. In Seattle deboarded last and a wheelchair was waiting for me so I didn’t have to walk to immigration. That turned out excellent as disabled persons have a special counter at immigration and do not have to wait in line. While the whole plane was waiting to get through immigration we sailed through without a hitch. Got our I-94 stamped, no need to check the bags and were out in 5 minutes. Hello Pacific NorthWest, we’re home baby!

W. could walk right to the Hertz Gold Card lounge to pick up the car which was already waiting for us. We got a Chevy Trailblazer, it’s BIG! Will show pics tomorrow. Checked into the Mariott Fairfield Inn were we made reservations for a room with a whirlpool so we could relax. Room was nice, whirlpool didn’t work however. We received a 50 USD discount instead.
Managed to stay awake till 11:00 PM, by than we had been awake for 24 hours and went to sleep.

Monday, Oct 3
Woke up at 5:30 AM, goodmorning jet lag
Drove around a bit in Seattle, even visited a car dealer to look at a new car, took a Subaru Outback for a test drive. Waited until it was time to go to KLM/NWA cargo to get the papers for the dogs. W. could hear Lotte was already in the cargo area waiting to be picked up. She’s very vocal because of her seperation anxiety We than drove to the US customs Department of Agriculture, the customs person went back with us to the cargo to check the dogs health after she declared them healthy we could finally bring them out! They we extatic, both cried and barked, but came through the long flight without any problems, thanks to the excellent care they received.
It costed us more to do it this way but it was so much more relaxed and easy, no long waiting in customs at the airport, they could go outside immediately to pee on the grass and we had all the empty and quiet parking lot to pack the crates and relax before driving off to Portland. We would do it this way again in a heartbeat.

The drive from Seattle to Portland was wonderful, what a beautiful State this is and what a great nature! Majestic forests, beautiful lakes, nice highways!

Made it just in time to the bank to draw a check for $2500 first rent and other costs, called the apartment to tell them we were arriving. At which point they let us know they didn’t expected us! Our apartment wasn’t ready! We drove to the office anyway and they went out of their way to apologize and told us they wanted to give us a clean apartment would we be willing to spend the night in a hotel? They would pay for it. Of course we agreed, we had no other options. They even made reservations for us and now I’m writing this at the Phoenix Suites in Beaverton. The dogs are crashed, fast asleep and so is W., I’m still up and running.

So there you have it, the short version, I realize it’s a bit of boring listing but I’m promise to be more upbeat and exciting in the next weeks
Tomorrow at noon we’ll be going to the apartment and hopefully by tomorrow night we’ll have more than one room to live in

Thursday September 29

Yesterday it was my birthday, I hung one more year on the line,
I should be depressed but a voice in my head said, – have a good time….(Paul Simon)

And a good time we had, it was a lovely day, went out to the town center and had a great lunch with all kinds of Dutch specialties. It was so strange to be able to follow all the conversations around us. Normally I don’t bother because French is difficult to follow, especially if the have an argument

After my siesta we had tea and went out to dinner to a great Greek restaurant with Lydia and René. Watching the two of them makes me so proud, they are such a great loving couple and obviously have a great deep connection. I’m more than proud how our daughter has turned out, after all the heartbreak she went through the last years. The death of a dear dear friend, Ron, because of this horrible brain tumor, the loss of so called friends, the loss of her job, her dog and her home. It has been very difficult years for her but she is (again) going strong. Ron dear friend, you’re never far away in our thoughts, we know you’re proud as well!

I had a big surprise at the restaurant with firecrackers and ice-cream for desert and the music in the restaurant played Happy Birthday I got some wonderful presents and all in all it was one of the best b-days ever!

Today we drove a bit up north in Holland to a small town called Lekkerkerk where W.’s family lives. he had a very busy day, running around to visit family, an aunt in the hospital, his mom, and now at the moment his brother. No, I’m here in the hotel, which is more than wonderful btw. I can take it easy and relax, it’s easier if he has the time and opportunity to give them his full attention.

It’s strange to know that the actual move is coming closer every day, I’m still worried that I don’t have all the necessary papers with me. I haven’t slept very well the last week, I sleep 2 hours a night the most and than wake up every 15 to 20 minutes. Stress prolly, I had hoped that I could wind down the last days before we fly but it’s nearly impossible for me.

Tomorrow we go and visit W’s father’s grave and place some plants, the rest of the day do some reading, drink coffee, find internet access so I can post this blog and the pics and hopefully relax