Considering Corning, CA?

Corning, California seems like a nice get-away locale for us. Maybe we'll move there.



Coming isn't as vibrant as say, Chico. But not nearly as sleepy as Vina. So, like Goldilocks says to Ella, it's "juuust right."

Anyone know anything about Corning or Vina or Chico?

Care to share? If so, please write. :)

Baby Steps...

Okay, it's March now, so we're taking baby steps to leaving Prague. You never know how rooted you are until you're looking to leave.

Some steps we took recently:

• Signed a contract with a local property management company to take care of our flat after we're gone. They'll handle utilities, maintenance and dealing with tenants. Yes, we're becoming landlords. And yes, it sounds crazy to us, too.
  
• Our bank. Czech banks know no boundaries when it comes to paperwork. The desire to simplify made for a lot of complex rubber-stamping. Maybe their tactic is to have so much paperwork, you're against closing anything? Of course, Ella talked about all this in 2006 when we opened her account, but we didn't get a cute ladybug doll for closing it.

Yeah, that's it. I didn't say we took a lot of baby steps.

Over the weekend, Jeff & the kids took a trip out of town. They decided mom needed a break. So Jeff, Ella & Mattias hopped on a northbound train and spent the weekend in Dresden, Germany. They took a tour of Volkswagen's "Transparent factory" and walked around old city center. Mattias' favorite part of the weekend was the factory, while Ella more enjoyed watching cartoons in the hotel. Dresden is only a 2 hour train trip, but it was a fun break for everyone home and away.

Stick a Fork in Me - I'm Done

Okay, it's official.

Now what do we do? Where do we go? ...not sure of those answers just yet. But we know we're heading west, back over the ocean.

Most friends here are confused why we don't just get another job in Prague. We've had a great time here, but we're ready to be done. It's time for a new adventure, but closer to family and UT.

For now, we'll make the most of our remaining time here.

Here's our plan:

• I work 2 more months, March and April.
• We'll spend May closing up shop and saying goodbye to friends.
• June is our month for travel, to say goodbye to Europe.
• We'll be in North America by July.

...unless we see some last minute beautiful spot (Just Kidding Erin!)

Another Update on Jeff's Job

Last month, I wrote a post about my job.

To recap, rumors started last September about layoffs. Got more & more certain by November. Lots of up & down feelings for us. By Christmas, we decided that it's okay to have our planned 5+ year stay cut short a year. We'd head back to the east coast of US/Canada, closer to family and friends again.
On that last post, we were 80-90% sure of the layoffs happening.

Since that last post, more has happened. Here's the skinny:

4 February - European Workers Council (Labors Union) meeting. Decision: no layoff

Soon after, Maylia and I made our own decisions. I'm sparing any details until all is final, but we figured better to have life in our control than wait for others to decide for us.

14 February - May & I have an incredible Valentine's dinner at Kampapark overlooking the Charles bridge to celebrate life and our 9 or 10 years of marital bliss. We're reacquainted with delicious scallops and are certain we've made the right decisions. :)

17 February - Surprise! - Company announcement: "Screw the Workers Council" (I'm paraphrasing here). Company decides to proceed with layoffs anyway. Meetings to serve notice to start on 26 February.

17 February - Not a surprise - manager invites 4 of us to 15 minute meetings with HR on the 26th. Mine's at 2:15.

Wish me luck! And see you this summer (our fingers crossed)

News of the Weird

This is a little story I've wanted to share. Bizarre. But interesting. And maybe even helpful to someone out there. This event occurred during the last 2 days Jeff's folks were visiting us.

Tuesday morning I woke up and started to make oatmeal. I cut up an apple to put in it and took a couple bites of apple off the core before throwing it away. I immediately got this awful, metallic, bitter taste in my mouth. At first I thought perhaps the apple wasn't good. But Jeff tried some and said it was fine. I sipped my coffee - Yuck! Ate the oatmeal - Ick! Every time I tried to eat something I would get the same terrible taste at the back of my mouth. The only way I could get relief was by brushing my teeth - but the moment I ate or drank anything (except water) the awful taste came back!

This lasted the entire day. And I still had the problem when I woke up and tried to have breakfast Wednesday morning. I found salty things (like popcorn) were not so bad and sweet things (chocolate) were terrible. It was an interesting way to diet. But not pleasant at all. I remembered a metallic taste in your mouth being a symptom of some illnesses - maybe heart disease or diabetes or something. So the next day I got online and started googling and I found this blog...God bless the internet and God bless Roger Hyam!

So it turns out that the problem is pine nuts. Yep, you read it right, folks, pine nuts! Sunday night we went out for dinner. I made a snack for the kids before we went that included roasted pine nuts for Ella. I love pine nuts and there were a few left in the pan that I gobbled up before heading out the door - maybe 2 tablespoons worth. I checked the bag, and as discussed on Roger Hyam's blog, they are pine nuts from China. Interestingly, Ella had no problems with them. Jeff could not resist after hearing my story and ate a whole bunch. He was also fine. But, as you can read on linked blog, it's like an allergy - it only affects some people...seems maybe 10 or 20%. And it is only a certain species of pine nut that comes from China. As I said before, I LOVE pine nuts, have eaten tons of pine nuts, and have never had anything like this happen before.

All in all, I was very grateful to know the cause of my yucky-mouth. I was also thankful that I had only had a couple spoonfuls of the nuts. By Thursday night I was back to normal. From what I've read, it takes two weeks for many people. Yikes!

Anyone want a bag of pine nuts?