Moving Update

We got to Greenville, SC safely on Wednesday night, unloaded the truck on Thursday, and are now settled in at Mom and Dad's. I now have less than 100 hours before I leave for Al Ain. It seems very hard to believe.

Moving News

OK, so by now are supposed to be in Greenville, SC. However, it took much longer than I thought to get the truck loaded and last minute details done, and P woke up yesterday with a fever of 102.3° F; (39° C).

So Bess had to take him to the doctor just to make sure it is just a virus (doc says it is). But because of a mix up on the patient board, Bss and P spent 3 1/2 hours waiting in the exam room before the doctor saw them. Then they still charged them full price for the visit. So the end result is that we are leaving Wednesday morning.

I did get my ticket number via email from KLM, so I can print out my ticket on Monday evening.

Update

So, here is a quick update on what is going on:

1. Had a great going away party at work on Tuesday. I'm really going to miss everyone there. I arrived at the library as an unmarried, childless undergrad work-study student about 13 years ago; now I'm leaving as a married father of four. With the exception of two summers and 11 months at the other library at ECU, have been working there ever since.

2. My last day was Friday. And after waiting for three years, the job upgrade for my position finally came through. So my last paycheck, today, and the payoff for my unused vacation time will be about 10% more than I thought.

3. Had our yard sale this weekend. We got rid of a lot of stuff, made enough to pay for our rental truck, and donated what was left to our church school.

4. Moving day today. I pick up our truck at 8:00 am. I hope that we can be on the road by early afternoon, but you never know.

Latest Update

Bss and I told our landlords that we are moving out at the end of the month today. Just 22 more days until we move and 7 more until I fly over. We really have a lot to get done.

On a completely unrelated note, here is a cute photo of O:

Passport Update

In an update to the last passport update, the State Department fixed B's passport misspelling and Fed Exed the new one overnight to us, so we are now all set on the passport front. This is a great relief.

Departure Date

I just got an email from HR in the UAE, and we have agreed on a departure date. I will be leaving from Greenville-Spartanburg on June 7th, just 51 days from today. This means that I have just 6 more weeks at my current job.

Paperwork update

Sorry about the lack of posts (I know that everyone is desperately thinking, when will there be a new post?). I was out of work with strep throat and that put me behind. However, while I was sick, Fed Ex and the UAE Embassy were working, and now I have completed the authorization process on all my documents. I've got the UAE revenue stamps to prove it:



Just as an aside, the sort of flattened circle followed by the diamond shaped dot on the right, opposite the 50, is the Arabic way of writing 50. For some reason that I don't understand, though we use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc), the Arabs don't. Actually, Arabic numerals are not really Arabic in origin, they are from India, but Arab traders got them from India and then brought them to Europe, where European merchants used them instead of the much more difficult to use Roman numerals. But Indian numbers don't look like Arabic numerals either, so I give up as to what is going on. I'll post all ten of the numbers at some point. The license plates of the UAE and the currency all have both Arab and Arabic numbers on them.

Oh, and here is Condaleeza Rice's Signature from the State Department authentication:

Yard Sale

So today is the big day of the first yard sale. But it is 8:30 and we still have not had anyone show up, so it doesn't look good. I guess next time we need to spend more on advertising.

Progress on Several Fronts

Good news today:

- The State Department returned my authenticated documents (complete with Condi Rice's signature and grommets!). Now I just have to send them to the UAE Embassy on Monday.
- The State Department will fix B's passport
- I placed the ad for our yard sale on Sunday.