the bait and switch couch

loverly, innt?

well, it WAS. in the store.

but then i bought it. or so i THOUGHT i bought it. took me a week to get all the cash out of the ATM, cuz they only took cash. and we still didn't have our slovak bank cards (not that THAT would have mattered). cuz the slovak banking system here won't allow us to spend more than 500 euros a day of our OWN money - even if we go into the bank itself and request the cash. we need to "establish a pattern." and that could take a year or so.

but back to our bait and switch couch.

when we finally DID have enough cash money to pay for it (going to the ATM - using our american accounts, incurring $15 fees for EACH transaction - a total of 7 - which took roughly 4 days, cuz well, we hafta eat w/ that cash, too, don'tchaknow), we went BACK to the furniture shop to handover the cash. funny, they said it was in the warehouse, all ready to be delivered and could be at our house in the afternoon.

and sure 'nuff. one was.

but it wasn't the soft, buttery red leather couch i saw in the shop. nope. i'm pretty sure this one is pleather. with a hint of cow in the seams.

and who do i complain to? um. NO ONE. cuz there is no one for to understand me.

good thing this is not a mine-forever couch. or i'd be really peeved. i just hafta pay the hunnerdollars in banking charges we incurred for the pleasure of sitting on pleather for 2 yrs.

the quest for an ortho(dontist)

so, i've been asking around, since the varkendaughter's teethes are full of metal. need to find an ortho ASAP.

and i got a lead. so i've been calling. but the number seems always to be busy.

but today, this is what i finally get in return:

"som na skoleni, proslite sms "

sounds rather reasonable (though i have no idea what it means - but i see that "sms" thingie and THAT seems to tell me that, perhaps, i should consider an SMS to him/her instead of a phone call), and, since i tried a few times thinking i got the number wrong the first or second. or, that, since i called from my mobile (cuz we have no OUTGOING calls available from our landline...) perhaps i dialed incorrectly.

who knows? cuz there are numbers for landlines and numbers for mobile. and one had better know which is which, or you ain't connecting ANYWHERES. so i always dutifully plug in the +421 code and neglect the zero, unless i am calling from a land line, which apparently, i ain't. but it's ALWAYS listed as though i would. duh....

and when i put this little sms thru my google tranlsate and my eu translate and my transtar translate (or what ever else i found while doing a search for slovak to english translate) i get this:

"I have slain, have passed sms"

every time.

wha???? was he killed? is the ortho dead? should i even bother to return the sms because, perhaps their in the middle of his FUNERAL?????

oh gawd, can you imagine if i am calling a dead guy's phone just to see if he could work on my daughter's teeth when they are in some celebratory mass??!!!

so i get on the horn with all the people i know that speak slovak. or at least all the people that i know that KNOW someone that speak slovak. and let me tell you, today was not an easy day to find someone that KNOWS someone to translate my urgent request.

turns out?

10 minutes ago i gots my answer.

damned ortho was in training. or teaching a class. or something.

i need to call again in the morning. at least i can call knowing he's not lying in a box somewhere, 6 ft underground...

myne hellish week

no pix today.

but i should be thankful. for at least i have innernet.

but let's back up, shall we?

first, on tewwwsday, the water goes out. yes, of course it happens in the morning, when showeres are to be had. and yes, of course, it happens before *I* get my shower on. and yes, OF COURSE, it happens when the varkenhusband is IN said shower...

so we got that gowin' for us, yes?

at least we get the chitlins off to skool, and the varkenhusband off to werk.

and i am stuck in waterless haus to wait.

and wait. and wait.

but, at last, water comes on. yippee!! and in more than just dribbles and splats. so i thinks i'm gonna get a cleansing.

but nooooooo.... wait! there's more!!!

honest to gawd, w/in 15 minuettes, the electricity pops off.

which means that the trickle of water i may have without it (needing that extra pump to push the water up our hill, we're told) won't be WARM.

and the weather has changed. for the COLD. it's 6C. and windy. and the radiators are cooling down quickly (lucky me, we had charged them the night before).

but finally the electro comes back. and luckily, before dark. but with it, or without it, we are still at a loss of innnernet.

and it takes TWO days to figure out why.

WHY???? cuz the landlady, who is off on holiday, chose NOT to pay the bill for three months.

and we beg and plead and whine and whinge.

and end up paying the 100 euro back fees to reconnect (in cash). but it takes DAYS.

and the !#$%^ put us at the lowest tier of connectivity.

which means i'm back to china time. or worse. actually worse.

i need to take some happy pix soon. tomorrow i venture back to coffee-tuesday hell. maybe i'll escape and just wander around w/ camera. and if i'm lucky, the cheese shop guy will open up before 2pm...

in which we experience our first shake-down

yep.

the varkenhusband gets accosted by the slovak police.

for running a red light.

and yes, i am (inconveniently) riding along w/ him.

first, they want to take away his american driving license. and his passport. (we can't have that, now, can we?). then they hint that there must be a penalty of some sort.

why, yes, of COURSE there should be some sort of penalty. hmmmmm.... but of what sort? we spend the next 30 minutes discussing the "penalty of sorts"...

850 euros.

yes. that's the first go 'round.

huh? 850 euros for following some OTHER guy making a right turn on red?

yep. 850 euros, my friend...

well, we ain't GOT 850 euros in our pockets. funny thing here - one must pay JOHNNY ON THE SPOT for these tickets. or the price goes up uP UP.

wanna know what the final cost was?

yes, still outrageous. but it's what we had in our collective wallets (minus the change - and no trip to the atm)

60 euro.

know what they stamped for the immediate payment of the ticket?

10 euros.

we got away cheap.

this time...

drugstore in a bathtub

yes, we couldn't help ourselves. needed to UNPACK all the crapolah that wasn't. i KNOW the movers are coming back in the morning, but we just couldn't NOT unpack OUR stuff. 'specially after living in and out of a thousand suitcases since august.

and we KNOW they KNOW. which is prolly why our shipment was arranged for a friday.

i so loooove slovakia.

we'll find a haus for these essentials eventually. but since there are soooo many more boxes to unpack and find homes for, this was the best home for these for the weekend.

hope my woohoo sistah's can see the UNUSED origins giftbox from 2 yrs ago. i've been saving it for something special. i think NOW is the time...

just wait till i show y'all the EMPTY box accomplishments pix - those slovak movers should really be paying us. but we all know who's been playing whom. and we wanted to live in a home more than we wanted to WIN.

and so it goes...

moving day ONE

so, the movers came yesterday - on the morning of the varkendaughter's 13th birthday, mind you. and the minute the trucks arrived, the rain arrived with it.

this is one truck unloaded into the garage. we had 7. the container wouldn't fit up the narrow little roads we have, so, just as in china, they transferred the load a few (dozen) times into more manageable-sized loads. this just means really, that they have more opportunity to throw our crap around.

and what is the FIRST thing i discover and unpack? yep. my cookbooks.

oh yah. and we can't forget about el catso, can we? dang thing was not phased IN THE LEAST by hustle and bustle of the thousands of slovak mover guys (who took a 2 hour lunch break and left at 5:30). which leads me to....

this...

cuz this is how they LEFT things at 5:30 on a friday evening.

guess when they're coming back to "finish" the job?

no i mean, REALLY. REALLY guess...

yep. MONDAY.

we're going to vienna today to celebrate varkendaughter's birthday properly. this includes a trip to LUSH (her favorite soap store) for a bar of henna. i've relented. since it isn't permanent.

the cat who stayed for breakfast

i know, unbleeble, yes?

woke up this morning and it was still sitting on the chair i was sitting upon last night OUTSIDE. just biding its' time.

but here we are. and we can't get rid of her (yes, i checked).

so what do we do now?

our shanghai cats are soooooo NOT going to be happy...

the cat who came to dinner

so, it was a nice weather day - in the 20s. i had the patio doors open. like i've had in the week or so prior. SINCE WE'VE MOVED HERE. and today, i had a couch delivered. so the doors were opened ALL THE WAY. and it was so nice, that i LEFT THEM OPEN.

and the kidlets came home from skool - a bit late, since it was yoga and rugby day (even tho varkenson really would rather have photography - yes, instead of rugby, not yoga)...

and we were sitting on newly aquired couch.

and out of the corner of myne eye, i spot a tail. i thought perhaps it was a wisp of my hair. i couldn't see for sure. and i got up from newly aquired couch and looked around. and saw nothing.

and promptly forgot about "the tail"

till dinner.



and this is who showed up.

we moved her OUT of the house (she had been in for several hours - SOMEWHERE). and we removed her.

but she remains.

even later, when i went outside to enjoy the mild night air and read one of the books i purchased for the varkenkidlets' birthday prezzies (my reading list is low - still waiting for the sea shipment), said varkenkittie (oh, and how i loathe to title her that, just yet) was there and waiting for me.

she is still outside, staring in the windows. longing to get in.

i cannot have THREE cats. even though 2 of them are still in china.

what oh what shall i do?

sunday queues

new country, new ikea...

one never gets all the ikea stuff one needs in the first or 2nd or even 3rd rounds. as a matter of fact, we forgot so much stuff i believe we'll be back for a 5th visit before the weekend. but we did manage to purchase the slatty things that go under the mattresses. of course, they didnt fit in the rental car, so we had to stand in the sunday queue for tuesday afternoon delivery. one needs an extraordinary amount of patience for a sunday queue. and the varkenhusband does not have it. this is why i generally do my ikea shopping on my own. of course, the sunday queue at the hornbach is something *I* do not have patience for, which is, of course, why we had to go there FIRST...

the water guy came today. he's fixing the leaky pipes in the furnace room. he managed to change out two sections of pipe, and install 2 shutoff valves. then he came upstairs and told me NOT to use the water for 2 hours. at least that's what i THINK he was saying. because i went downstairs and noticed that the pipes were still leaking. and i commented on that by pointing to the pipe and the dripping water. and he nodded his head and said "don't use the water for 2 hours" or whatever it was he said the first time. and then pulled out a hack saw from the box of plastic parts he had, and mimed the cutting motion of someone working very hard.

and then he left.

the guys that are supposedly here to fix the electric awning are here. but the awning is outside lying on the patio (where it has been since before we moved in) and they are upstairs in the childrens bedrooms w/ the windows open and power tools. and i see no connection between the two.

i am waiting for the satellite man to show up. he said he would come friday or monday. it is monday. so i hope he will come today. the website that we have for the satro service doesn't state anything about satellite tv. only cable. but the landlady says she has satellite. and the remote control thingie says we have channels, but no signal. i'm not quite sure what to expect, but one can only hope that he at leasts shows up.