I can't believe that it's taken me so long to find The Evil Overlord List.
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.
A little while back I mentioned that I was Moving to America. It's taken from then until a few days ago to get the magic visa sticker attached to my passport, and now we are finally good to go.
The people shipping our stuff have been here since 9:30am and are just finishing up (it's getting close to 3pm now). I've moved a number of times in the past but this is the first time I've had someone else do the packing for me--I can't stress how much easier it is this way. If I hadn't been up all night sorting stuff into ship and skip piles, I would be feeling pretty good right about now.
Why was I up all night the night before? The answer is that it is impossible to get anything done during the day with Xander running around and, let's face it, no one really wants to pull an all-nighter when it's not essential.
We'll be spending the next couple of days getting rid of the stuff we didn't decide to take with us, and making the house look nice (we still need to sell it!).
We fly on the 29th.
Xander had his first half-day at play school today. He was a little unsettled about not having either Juliette or myself near-by, but enjoyed being in the company of other kids his own age.
He produced his first artistic piece, without the aid of crayons, pictured to the left. The piece features the colour red and his favourite shape--the circle.
... and I'm not talking about my own this time.
I just sat down with Juliette to play a two-player game of Sacred, a game that I got a little while back, but never found the time to finish.
Sacred looks lovely and is a fun game, when it's not crashing out. It's one of the least stable games I've laid eyes upon (even with the latest patches) since I had the misfortune to install the first Star Trek: Armada game.
I caught the tail end of the BBC news earlier tonight (I don't normally watch it) and one of the reports was concerning the "Presidential Debate". The report was rounded off with the news that "Kerry has been attending debating camp, learning to use shorter sentences" and that "Bush has been practicing staying up later than 9.30pm (his usual bedtime) in order to appear alert later in the evening".
Now, I couldn't help but laugh at this news, particularly when there is no clear leader in the polls. I'm, once again, reminded of the "Vote for None of the Above" campaign from the film Brewsters Millions. Brewster has to spend $30 million in the space of 30 days in order to qualify for his inheritance, and decides that one good way to get rid of the cash is to enter the presidential campaign. However, he isn't in it to win it, he is merely there to point out that none of the candidates is worth voting for, especially himself.
I've got a few invites going spare; if you'd like to try it out, you (should!) know how to contact me.
Update: I'm back up to the full complement of 6 available invites again; seems like you can't give the damned things away.... please take them off my hands...
Update2: Another morning, another full complement of 6 invites...
Update3: still got the full complement. They're obviously not as sexy as they once were.
Juliette and myself particularly enjoyed the character Qui-Gon Jinn from Episode 1. Apparently we are not alone (warning: readers of an evil disposition should not view that page!).
We don't really think of Qui-Gon as hot stuff, but we really do enjoy seeing a strong character with a good sense of morality and balance, especially one so believable (light-sabers and mind tricks aside).
If Episode 1 didn't have enough Qui-Gon for you, I suggest watching Rob Roy.
I got confirmation of my H1-B visa last night, which means that I can finally arrange those little things (like my flight and where I'm going to live) that have been dependent on this news.
For those that don't yet know, I've taken a position as Senior Systems Engineer at OmniTI Computer Consulting, Inc., to work with George and Theo on (among other things) anti-spam solutions for the fastest MTA on Earth.
I'm really looking forward to making the move in a couple of weeks time!
