April 2006

April 30
The Truhe Taxi got us to Newark in plenty of time. We sat in the airport staring out the window for an hour before we realized we were looking at New York City, then we decided it was time to chow so our last meal in America for quite a while was a Turkey Club and French Dip. We paid more for that one meal than we will fro a day or two of meals in Kazakhstan, but it was tasty.

The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful. I sat next to a pair of Friendly Frankfurters who looked like my high school friend Anastasia’s parents, pleasantly happy. Rob was lucky enough to get stuck next to the Restless Russian who thought Rob was his personal assistant and would tend to all of his carry-on stowing and retrieval needs…..and get up every 5 minutes so the guy could walk around, then return to stare down Rob hoping Rob would surrender his nice aisle set. The Cross Timbers crowd will be glad to know that Rob was very well behaved during the whole flight.

One of the flight attendants (formerly known as flight steward) was a ringer for my Niece Megan’s friend Brian—so she better check what he was doing this weekend, and if he knows 3 or more languages fluently and moonlights for Lufthansa.

The main entertainment of the first flight was the exercise video they played half way through the flight. It was like a cross between Toy Story and Gumby & Pokey. It had a whacked out looking guy doing slow motion stretches and meditation. It was mesmerizing, but oddly disturbing..

Once we landed in Frankfurt we paid $65 to take a shower, and you better believe we used all the hot water in Germany, and every last bit of shampoo, soap and conditioner for the fee. We forgot to pack our deodorant in the carry-on bags so I was very European and sprayed some perfume that was in the bathroom on me. I’m sure it was perfume, but I’m not so sure about the jar of neon green stuff that I used as hair gel, since I did not have hairspray either. It had a nice smell to it, so off I went.

April 29
Our bags are packed and we are ready to go after a fine feast with GrillMaster Chip, the RoseRoses, LippLipps and last summer's Kaz family, who gave us some really cool Kaz flags. The Kaz kids were the coolest. It appears to be a tradition to have Chip feed you, then jet off to Kazakhstan. The only question is, who will be next year's Kaz family?

The evening was filled with watching the kids run around, re-living New Years Eve and much torment of Robbie on the topic of the child's name. Chuck "Chip" Taylor got much press but alas I am afraid I will not win that name battle unless there is much Kaz Vodka involved. The litany of rejected names was discussed and there was no group consensus, so it looks like we are on our own to pick the right name once we meet junior. But we will give neighbor Chip free license to call him Chip at his disgression.

Feel free to add a comment on good, or horrific, names.

April 28, Part II
My husband, such the stylish dresser. What's next, Trax sneakers? Then he had to go and geek up the blog with a hideous looking URL. We are done work for a couple weeks, or months for me, and now it's time to pack. So what are we doing? Rob's watching Flyers and I'm trying to transfer DVD's to my iPod. Something tells me it's going to be a long next couple of days as we get ready to jet out of Dodge. I just hope we don't miss something important, like underwear.

April 28
I (Rob) got access to post to this blog!! w00T!

I also got a watch with 2 timezones so I can be sure of the time back home.
It's nothing fancy.... 30$ at walmart.
http://www.timex.com/bin/detail.tmx?item=753048596713

Anyways another person in Astana mentioned that if you have an apartment that there will be no clocks there so a travel clock (with alarm) might be a good idea. We have one of those but lookie there... the walmart watch has an alarm as well. I am so smart!!!

April 25
We got our visas today. I'm not sure if we were more excited that they came so soon (before we started sweating bullets), or that the visas inside the passports actually look really cool. I'm am still fighting with my iPod trying to get some DVDs on it......I only have video so far, and no sound. You'd think with a house of tech-heads I could figure this out. Lots more to do this week, like get travel medications, get some documents notarized and the brand spanking new cash, courtesy of my rockin' credit union. Of yeah, and pack...that foodsaver will come in handy to squoosh more in.

April 19
We got our Letter Of Invitation (LOI) today, which means Kazakhstan will allow us to visit their country now that we have learned how to spell it. More importantly it means that we can get visa's and make plane reservations. The visa's meant we had to get the obligatory 'angry' photo's at Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart photo studio rocks-- we were in and out of there in about 3 minutes.

Making plane reservations, well know that's a bit more prolonged. I talked to Lufthansa yesterday, and I think I was connected directly to Germany, and after an hour of me telling the phone rep about the wonders of the internet and the wealth of information on their own website about 'adoption fare tickets' (don't think they are cheaper, they are about the same, maybe a little more expensive, but they allow you to change your flight home without any fees) he agreed to give me a price. So when I called back today I thought it would be no problem. After 45 minutes of the Worlds Worst OnHold Music, they told me a memo this morning was issued that said they no longer do adoption fares. Hmmm, I gotta try that one at work "Hey just this morning I decided that whatever you want, I no longer do".

So Hasta La Vista Lufthansa and Hello United Airlines....which happens to shares flights with Lufthansa. After about an hour of much nicer On Hold music, I am closer. We have reservations, but the elusive 'rates department' needs to 'research' the price before we put it on our credit card (ka-ching more WaWa Visa points). I had also called United yesterday and got a price, but I guess the 'rates department' does not work on Wednesdays. So I'll call back tomorrow and see what kind of new and exciting delays they have in store for me. If I can lay a sob story on them maybe I'll get a free pass to the Red Carpet Lounge at the Frankfurt airport so we can get a shower after our overnight flight. In the end, the United lady was very helpful. Go United!

Oh yeah, we plan to leave on Sunday April 30th....after a kick-ass BBQ with the RoseRoses and BuckBucks the night before.

April 9
We decided to start baby-proofing the house this weekend to ease into it. Holy Moly, I didn't know there were so many things to buy. We plugged the electrical outlets, moved the booze and cleaners to high ground and bought a bunch of safety stuff like bumpers and toilet things.

We also registered at Babys'R'Us for all the stuff we think we might need. Rob will be coming home a month or so before I do, so it will make a nice shoppng list for him to work on. My friend Brenda, and her 10-year old daughter, helped us out at Babies'R'Us to figure out what we need and don't need (like a fancy hamper or toy box- who needs that when you have RubberMaid!). We did spend about 1/2 an hour in the stroller aisle trying to figure out how they opened and folded up. After 30 minutes of 3 adults, one being an engineer, we had it beat and could open and close one in the flick of the wrist and smack of the foot in 5 seconds. After all that, this baby better like going for walks in the stroller.

We're also trying to finish up some home improvement projects so we will be all ready to go when the time comes.