Caymans Bound

Got the news this afternoon that our 6 month temporary work permits have been approved. Katie has her passport and we are all packed and ready to go. By this time tomorrow we will be in the Cayman Islands. Big thanks to Russ, Gail and Stephanie for putting up with us this past week. Its never easy having two unexpected house guests for an extended stay and we really appreciate it. Once we have cell phones in the islands we will forward numbers. Meanwhile you can email us and we will update the blog when we arrive.

Washington trip/ A week with the Loski's and Final Travel Plans

By Scott:

As the last entry indicated, all of our plans and schedules got shot to pieces last week by a combination of two governments, a broken computer and plumbing issues. We put off our travel plans for a week and have been living with the Loski's as we get everything together to make the move. We now have Katie's passport, our computer is back and we are totally out of the apartment and packed up to go.

Before everything went wrong last week, Katie and I had a good trip up to Washington state to visit her relatives and mine. We arrived Thursday morning and were picked up by Katie's Grandparents at the airport. We then met Katie's cousin Erica and the five of us went to Woodland Park zoo. Katie and I are huge zoo aficionados and I have to admit that the Seattle zoo is very impressive and I strongly recommend it to anyone from both our families visiting the greater Seattle area. From the zoo we headed over to the locks and the salmon ladder. After a full afternoon we went back into downtown and went to a Mariners game against the Anaheim Angels. A very full day.

Friday dawned bright and sunny. Katie and I picked up the rental in West Seattle and headed for the Olympic Peninsula. We just made the ferry over the sound and drove up to Sequim our ultimate destination for a 10 mile round trip hike out to a lighthouse which sat at the end of a long spit out in the bay. We started around 12:30 and had plenty of beach and good weather. The funny thing was as we walked out there were several groups of senior citizens coming back and they didn't even look winded. We also got several warnings to watch the tides. We got out to the lighthouse around 2:30 and had lunch then took some pictures. I got overly excited and instead of the 30 minutes we were supposed to spend out there it was closer to an hour and 15 minutes. When we left at 3:45 the weather had gotten cold and rainy and the race was on to beat the tide and the rain back off the spit. It started to rain with about two miles left to the shore and by then the tide had come in causing us to have to walk on the driftwood. That extra 45 minutes at the lighthouse had cost us. When we hit the shore line Katie and I both let out whoops of victory. Those senior citizens definitely have my respect as I felt that hike for four or five days after. From Sequim we headed back East and caught the ferry at Port Townsend over to Whidby. Once again we just made the ferry and got to my Mom's house around 8ish.

On Saturday we had planned to go out to San Juan Island but both of us felt like a slower day would do us good. The weather also had turned and while there would be spots of good weather rain was expected to dominate the day. We slept in and then went with my Mom over to the thrift shop. While Mom took care of some things Katie and I went across the street to the PBY museum and got to fly a simulator. We then headed out Fort Casey to do some kite flying. There were several clubs out there for kite flying and the winds there are so good coming off the sound that even someone who cant fly kites can. We had dinner at the Chinese buffet in Oak Harbor enjoyed a quiet evening. That evening we discovered that our rental had picked up a nail and had a flat tire. We talked to enterprise and decided to switch out cars Monday morning in Oak Harbor since we didn't want to drive back to Seattle on the spare.

The weather Sunday was very rainy and we headed down to Greenbank to see the stores, do some wine tasting and see the central part of the Island. We had planned to do dinner at Deception Pass but the weather made that impossible so we had the cook out at Mom's. Alex came over and we watched The 300 on DVD.

Monday we switched out the rental and headed back to Seattle for Katie's grandfather's 74th birthday. We took the boat shuttle across from West Seattle over to downtown and walked the public market then had lunch at the Crab Pot. After ice cream we headed to the airport and our flight home.

It was when we got home that our troubles started. We had talked to the passport people no less than seven times in the two prior weeks including calls on Friday as we drove up the peninsula and Monday afternoon while we were downtown. On each occasion they had told us everything was still being processed and there were no issues. But on our answering machine Monday night were three messages all asking us to call. We did that first thing Tuesday and discovered for the first time that apparently there was a problem with the application. They had it for 12 weeks and had cashed our check 8 weeks ago but now less than 48 hours before we were to leave they suddenly have an issue. We Fed Ex' d the new application and spent Tuesday cleaning the apartment and getting our stuff out. By Tuesday evening we knew that we would need to push back our flight. We decided to push back our plans by one week to give time for everything to get finished. That evening our computer had broken and that was an additional factor in our decision to push our plans back a week. Dell sent someone out to get it that same night they fixed it and had it back to us by Friday.

We had planned to do Six Flags as a wind down day and last Wednesday we spent the day at the park. By way of comment the last Wednesday before school gets out is the day to do Six Flags there were almost no lines and we got to ride everything we wanted.

We moved in with the Loski's Thursday and have been staying with them while we finish everything and wait on our work permits to get finally approved. Gail and Russ have been great and Stephanie graciously has let us stay in her room. We have been chomping at the bit to get going and this week has been difficult just because things out of our control have determined what is going to happen. Everything happens for a reason and this one week delay has been good because it has given us a chance to wrap up everything and let Katie spend some time with her family. On Friday she got to help her Mother clean out her school room which has been something of a yearly tradition. This week we are pretty much just marking time until Thursday and our departure.

Will update with a post when we get to the Caymans this weekend.

Best Laid Plans

By Scott:

Sometimes you're the window shield and sometimes you're the bug, today Katie and I have been the bug. No passport for Katie (long story she will tell soon), still waiting on the work permits (should come in this week and wouldn't be an issue if passport issue hadn't come up) and our computer broke along with the only toilet in our apartment. Computer is off to Austin to get fixed (Dell has great customer support and has been one bright spot in working with us).

Will update with much more later, new departure date is May 31. Also have much to tell about our trip to Washington state. When we have access to net will put in detailed posts. Will be at apartment through Thursday with our cell phones and then at Russ and Gail's until we leave on the 31st.

Moving is NOT fun

By Scott

As I write this post I am in my second to last day as a practicing lawyer and Kathleen and I are just 10 days away from our move to the Caribbean. We are now living in an empty apartment with our clothes and stuff we are taking to the Caymans, some TV trays, cooking implements and an I-home for our clock/radio/alarm. On Friday Kathleen oversaw a massive move that involved the complete removal of all our furniture and then a two phase trip for dropping stuff off, first to her parents home and then on to a storage facility. Katie had packed up just about everything, telling me that for the good of our marriage she would oversee everything and do it since we have such different philosophies on moving. She wants to move stuff in a timely fashion where as I want to delay and procrastinate and generally deny that I actually have to move until right up to the point where it absolutely has to be done. It meant that every morning last week I left to go to work and in the evening when I returned another room was completely packed. She did an awesome job and I am extremely lucky that she knew what to do because if it had been left to me we would still be dealing with it. I'm just not good with moving and the process of choosing what to take to Kevin, what to store with Gary, what to put in the facility and hardest of all, what to sell/donate when you have 36 years of stuff is no fun at all.

We spent Friday night at her parents house, which by the way is perhaps the best place in the whole world to do a garage sale. They are right on the corner of a major connecting street in Duncanville so we got a huge amount of traffic. Thanks to Russ and Gail who were incredible not just in letting us use their yard and driveway but also in letting us store stuff the night before, getting us limeaides during the hottest part of Saturday, getting lunch from Whataburger, helping translate and even moving some stuff for us. Thanks also to Stephanie who let us use her room Friday night.

Katie and I got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and started moving everything out into the driveway and yard. We were selling our entire bed set with the two side stands and chest of drawers, our big couch, our kitchen set, 5 book cases, our patio set, electronics, TV stand and a whole lot of smaller items. We sold two of the book cases at 6:15 a.m. when a nice elderly lady walking by saw us setting up and bought them. She asked if I could deliver them right around the corner since her husband was in Nigeria with Wycliffe (ironically the organization Katie's parents worked for bible translating in Indonesia) so that was an auspicious beginning, except for the fact that right around the corner was really about three blocks and making two trips with the book cases I was winded and it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet our official start time. Traffic was constant all morning and early afternoon. We had placed an ad and I wish we had asked more people if they were drive by traffic or coming from the ad just to know, the ad was only 14 bucks but we probably could have gotten by without it. Some were definitely from the ad as they mentioned things that clued us in to that but most had to be drive by and I think all the big items went to drive by people who saw all the stuff out. We reached our financial goal by noon and still had the bed set. We eventually sold the bed set at a pretty reduced amount from our original number but it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to get rid of it. We ended up making enough to pay for our movers and give us some spending money for the Seattle trip coming up. It started to rain around 4 so we wrapped everything up. Russ and I took everything we had left to Goodwill and donated it. After dinner with Russ and Gail to thank them for everything it was back to the apartment for Katie and I and an early bed time for both of us.

When we woke up Sunday morning every muscle in our bodies ached. We had been moving furniture all during the garage sale and used muscles I at least hadn't used in a while. We had slept on an air mattress which is fine for one person but with two every time someone moves the air shifts and the other person feels it, so not the best of sleeps. Sunday afternoon it was back to Duncanville and a Mother's Day dinner for Gail, Russ grilled some steaks and we had picked up some steamed shrimp. A nice dinner that was actually our last Sunday dinner with Katie's family (a weekly event) for a while.

Kathleen has been really incredible getting the move done. I have not been handling it well. I don't react well to change and she has had to hold my hand every step of the way. Once the change is made I am fine but the process is no fun. We picked up a web cam and microphone Sunday and it is up and working. Please email Katie (she is also our tech person) to figure out which service to use (Windows live messenger, MSN. Yahoo etc.) so we can talk online. When we get to the Caymans we will be getting cell phones but International calls are way too expensive so we want to talk to everyone on line.

We head to Seattle Thursday to spend five days visit her relatives and mine. We plan to spend time with family, do some hiking on the peninsula and on San Juan Island and basically refresh and recharge. Next Tuesday we are doing Six Flags and then Wednesday is the catch all day to close out any remaining accounts, deal with any apartment issues etc.

We do still have a couple of government hoops to clear both in the US and Caymans. Our work permits are still before the Caymans Immigration board and awaiting approval. They were to be considered last week and we are hopeful that we get the news soon on those. Ironically it is the US govt and the passport mess that is a bigger concern. We put in the paperwork 13 weeks ago to get a name change (normal processing time is 4-6 weeks) on Katie's passport and still haven't gotten it back. They are so backlogged because of the law change for all people flying out of the country that they aren't even addressing issues until you are two weeks from your date of travel which for us is May 24. So last Thursday Katie called and after several attempts to get through finally got a customer service person and was told they would send an emergency email about our situation and we should call back Tuesday the 15th in the afternoon. They even asked what time we leave on the 24th to see if they could get us the passport the morning that we travel (we leave early so we have to have it by the 23rd). What a mess, but a good reminder to everyone get your passport stuff in now if you want to come visit, as bad as it is this year, it will be worse by an order of many magnitudes next year when it extends to road and cruise travel.

We will try and do an entry while we are in Washington. Thanks again to the Loski's for all their help on the garage sale.

Cinco de Mayo

by Katie

This past weekend, on Cinco de Mayo, Scott and I did Trader's Village in Grand Prairie. A giant flea market, Trader's Village is a place for people to sell basically anything. There are a lot of farmers with produce, florists, garage sales, random clothing and jewelry, basically anything you can think of. According to the people around us, people make good money if they know what to bring to sell and how to price it. Sadly, for us, Trader's Village was a complete bust!!

We got there at 7 in the morning to get set up and stayed till 4. It sprinkled most of the day; although, that didn't keep people from coming. They just didn't want candles. In that time, we sold 16 out of the 54 candles that we still needed to sell and we sold them at a huge loss. After this past weekend, I had to come to the realization that I just wasn't going to be able to break even in this business and I have now simply become a statistic. Ah well, it has been a learning experience and I enjoyed making the candles.

After that long day, we met Melanie, her new boyfriend Seth, and Stephanie in Dallas to celebrate Mel's 21st birthday (she is a Cinco de Mayo baby). Since our day had been so long, we left Mel and Seth to continue the night and went home to bed!

We had dinner with my family Sunday to celebrate Mel's birthday with the folks. Seth got to meet Mom and Dad for the first time; I think it went well.

I got the go-ahead from Scott to do a massive packing when he realized just how close we are to leaving, two weeks from tomorrow and five days of that we will be in Washington. The movers come on Friday to move most of our stuff to my parents who are letting us use their drive way for a garage sale and then the rest of the stuff to the storage unit in Duncanville. We are going to try to sell all of our furniture (except the hutch) and will therefore be sleeping on an air mattress and eating off TV trays for the remaining time. I hope that the garage sale on Saturday and Sunday goes much better than Trader's Village last weekend but whatever we don't sell is going to Salvation Army on Monday.

Wicked!!

By Katie

Last night in the middle of three major storm systems, my mom, sisters, and I went out to dinner and then to see Wicked for all of their birthdays. We were completely soaked by the time we walked through the parking lot as umbrellas did nothing to keep the sideways rain off us. Walking in high-heeled strappy sandals was a bit difficult for all of us and Mel even took off her shoes to make the trip. We were lucky they had to start late because of power problems before the play started or we might have been late. Scott says that the storms were crazy last night with hurricane force winds that blew down many power lines (on our way home there were portions of the highway that were dark because of power outages) and massive flooding. Even with the three times we lost power and the play had to stop while they reset their computers, it was a fantastic show! I think that everyone enjoyed it and I may have created at least one more Wicked obsessed person.

Yesterday I started getting the "Longhorn" room (which doesn't have much that is Texas Longhorns since all of that is down in Houston) packed. Scott handles change better if we do it in small steps so we are packing small bits of the apartment at a time. Everything will be packed away unless it is coming with us to the Caymans by next Thursday so that the movers can move it all to my parents for the garage sale or into the storage unit. Next weekend we will be living in a very empty apartment!

It is a bit scary to think that three weeks from today we will be heading down to the island. I know we are both very ready to get started but it is still scary. As Stephanie pointed out last night, we aren't going to be able to hang out like this anymore. No matter how ready I am to get started in the Caymans, it will be a bit hard to leave family.

Three Weeks from our Move

By Scott

I am back from my second visit to Grand Cayman where I went last weekend to present the Strategic Plan to the College Board of Trustee's. John and I flew down on Friday and got in around 6 in the evening. We stopped off at Fosters the supermarket about 2 miles from the college and got food and drinks for the weekend. Restaurant food is very expensive on the island and while groceries are more expensive than the US they are still far less expensive than we would pay in restaurants so we got enough for a couple of meals. We stayed in the apartment at the college that Katie and I are going to live in for our first six months on the Island. That night we unloaded the four full suitcases we had brought down of stuff (at 40 plus pounds each, those suitcases were heavy as all get out) and settled in to prepare for the board meeting the next morning.

Saturday morning we met with the Board and the President Dr. Elsa Cummings in the library at the college. Kathleen had put together a power point for us that went off without a hitch. The board seemed very enthusiastic and had lots of questions and comments. What I had planned to be a 30 minute presentation lasted almost two hours because of all the comments and discussion that was provoked.

On Saturday evening I had the opportunity to attend the launching of a new book written by Roy Bodden, a former Minister of Education in the Caymanian Government entitled The Cayman Islands in Transition. I drove back from the event with Elsa, my first time driving on the left side of the road which will definitely take some getting used to. I had paid attention as a passenger during our last visit but the first time you actually drive and not just watch as a passenger is intense. I kept thinking "left left left left" every time I came to a turn.

I have already started the book and am three chapters in. The work is a fascinating study of Caymanian politics and society. Sunday morning, John and I had brunch with Elsa up in West Bay and the photo below is of me on the deck of the Cracked Conch where we had our meal. The afternoon was spent out on the eastern end of the Island taking care of some things in preparation for our move. Sunday night we had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant and got in early for our 4:30 a.m. wake up call to make our 7:15 departing flight.

The flight back through Miami was fine though in the future we recommend avoiding that airport if you decide to come visit. There are non stop flights from Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte and Fort Lauderdale (which we also suggest avoiding based on comments from John and April). We are going down through Houston in May and hopefully that is more pleasant than Miami which is under construction and which has a very time consuming customs and immigration check in because the lines are so long.

Katie and I head back on May 24. We will stay at the college the first two nights then go to a resort on the Eastern end of the island for our one year wedding anniversary. We officially start June 1 but unofficially will be helping beginning on May 28th as we move in.

Katie's weekend consisted of finishing up her volunteer work with Defend Darfur Dallas and spending quality time with her sisters. She is working on our wedding scrapbook which she is thoroughly enjoying. On Tuesday we were able to get out from under the Acura lease for substantially less than we thought we would have to pay and so we are a one car household for the next two and a half weeks presuming JJ (Katie's name for her Saturn) doesn't die on us. This weekend is our second try at traders village and assuming no tornado interruption we hope to unload the last of the candle supplies and materials. Next weekend is the garage sale, my last day of work is the 15th and on the 17th we head up to Seattle to visit Katie's Grandparents, my Mom and Brother for five days.