Here in USA

So, we're here in Columbia, MD, USA. It's been a hell of a long week; clearing out the house was the hardest part of the whole move, but worth it in the long run.

In the end, we gave away some really nice stuff that nobody wanted (or could afford) to buy; a nearly new office quality desk, Iiyama Vision Master 510 Pro monitor, a box-o-bits including things like a Roland Sound Canvas midi module, WinTV USB etc. Heart-breaking, but it was good to reduce the amount of stuff that we own. Some of the stuff was kinda crappy or useless; for example, I had boxes of things like IO boards for 386/486 machines, ISA and PCI gfx boards, 4 brand new PSUs for the PII generation machines (they came with cases, but were not powerful enough for the PIII processors I was using at the time).

After a gruelling unknown number of hours >= 24, we had loaded up our 6 large suitcases, 2 dogs, 2 dog carriers, Juliette, Xander and myself onto a mini school bus that we had hired to drive us down to the Sheraton Skyline, the only hotel we found in the area that would accept us with our dogs, and had a goodbye meal with some of my family.

The next day we checked in at LHR terminal 4; checking in with the dogs took over an hour; they handled things pretty well, but were pleased to hop into the pet cargo containers to have somewhere to rest.

The flight itself was delayed for 45 minutes while they replaced a radio, but magically arrived at BWI 20 minutes early. Xander was really well behaved on the flight, and was quite content with playing with the buckle on his car seat for most of the journey, sleeping for most of the rest.

We got to watch Dodgeball while Xander was napping, and thoroughly enjoyed it; not as good as Zoolander (probably my favourite movie), but vastly superior to Starsky and Hutch (which could have been much better).

When we touched down, we were collected from the airport by a friend/client (who lives within a reasonable distance of the airport) and his "Savannah GMC Van of Terror"; a 12 seater van with blacked out windows that gives airport security the heebie-jeebies.

So, here I am now, on Halloween, "borrowing" a neighbors wifi (I'm getting my own sorted out this week) blogging from our somewhat empty apartment. Mom-in-law had previously visited to drop off our car, filled with some kitchen utensils and bedding, and George and Theo have also donated a few items to make the place feel less empty; all these things help, but we're still pretty bare in here.

We're going to have to go shopping for more stuff; there's no rush for most of it, just for the stuff that annoys us the most first. Top of Juliettes list is an electric kettle, which seems to be something of a rarity here. Top of my list... hmmm, something to sit on would be nice.