Big Belated News

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.0079 SEK

WE HAVE A HOME!!!  Most of you probably knew that but we have been gone awhile.  We closed on our home on the 17th, later in the day than we had hoped but still, we got it done.  We had to drive to Kansas City to get a cashiers check because our bank doesn't have a branch here and none of the local banks would do it for us.  We waited down there until we heard from our Realtor about when our closing time would be.  We bought some stuff and met a dude named Lars working at a Target.  I noticed he had a little accent and so I asked him if he was Swedish. He said he was and that he had just become an American in fact.  I took Lars as a good sign that we would get our house that day and we did.  So now we are home owners.  We've been busy painting and unpacking boxes.  Our shipments from Pullman and Sweden both arrived last week and I think we have 75% of the boxes opened.  Still don't know where to put half of if, but it's here.  And later next month we get Jax back as well.  Good times.

We also bought a new car.  A 2009 Ford Fusion.  It's a good car it has that SYNC feature from Microsoft so we can make calls with it or tell it to play "Michael Bolton" and it will do nothing because we don't have that on the mp3 player hooked up to it.  Can't have everything I guess.

So that is a quick and dirty update.  Maybe if I keep them shorter I'll update more often.  Kind of like twitter but not as mind-numbing I hope.

Later

Opening Day!!

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.0331 SEK

Our Rental Car

Hello again dear neglected readers.  How long it has been since last we spoke, er... read I guess. Whatever.  

Still in the hotel.  So that's what's new. Um, good make your own waffles thing which is nice. Ready to move into our home though.  On that front, we are finishing up our loan papers.  Trying to figure out how to get some of our Swedish financial information in a timely fashion.  Always difficult.  We did however go down to the giantist furniture store in the whole world (at least in the greater Missouri/Kansas area) and order a new bed and couch to be delivered to the house the day after we close. Exciting! We'll stay in the hotel one more night just in case it we don't close until late in the day and we want to get a cleaning crew in before we move in there. 

On the job front:  I've got a few federal job apps in, several with one agency.  I spent four-and-a-half hours at the local Office Depot trying to fax cover letters and copies of transcripts to support these multiple job applications.  Apparently a lot of people were trying to do the same thing and I kept getting a busy signal when trying to fax.  Not a bad way to spend a Monday afternoon.  You get to meet a few of your neighbors that way and see what kind of interesting things they are copying and faxing and printing.  I would say it's similar to sipping coffee along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.  You know where if you sit there long enough you'll meet everyone you have ever known in your life.  And I think I've just become the first person to compare the Office Depot in St. Joseph, Missouri to one of the most famous streets in the entire world.  How's that for cultural significance. I know that's why you come to this blog. To here the worldly musings of an over-educated and under-employed globetrotting cultural ambassador of overlooked bastions of high culture.  Now excuse me while I go check out the Big Kmart here where rumor has it that James Joyce was inspired to write Ulysses.

Oh yeah, opening day today.  Hope springs eternal today, at least until tomorrow.  Go M's.

Hej då!