Back on line, folks!

Why? Why does my luck here stink? Agnes and Emily (our old roommate) used to tell me that I was the luckiest guy and that things just seemed to fall into my lap. Good, positive things. Well, let me tell you,Luxembourg has given me a wake up call! I have come to the conclusion that I am lucky in love (Agnes wrote that, by the way!) and that is about it! As you read this blog, keep in mind the previous blog series entitled “My Life is a Circus.”

As all of you know, we were home for the holidays for a couple of weeks. Well, last Saturday we left CVG at 7:30pm and arrived in Paris at 9:10am on Sunday morning. When checking in at Cincy, it should be noted that three of our four bags were overweight…well overweight! Good thing we had some extra US cash to pay the lady at the desk!

So anyways, our flight got in to Charles de Gaulle around 9:10am and our flight from Paris to Lux wasn't set to leave until 8:40pm that night. Our original plan was to spend the day running around in Paris (there are worse places to have a long layover, right???). We were so tired though and opted to rent a car back to Lux. Of course, we realized that once we got into the car (which, by the way was a definite upgrade from the Shiat (see Tuscany blog)), we did not have directions!

We ended up driving for a bit and finally found a gas station. To our surprise we were headed in the right direction which was great (especially given that I am sort of psychotic about getting lost!).

The drive was about 3.5 to 4 hours through the beautiful French countryside, including the Champagne region (note that if your bubbly is not from this region, it is most decidedly not real Champagne, as the French like to remind you). We ended up back in Lux around 2:30pm and went straight to our apartment to drop off our bags. This was perfect! All day to get unpacked, have a couple beers, relax, etc. This is when the fun began and lady luck decided to bail on me.....

We went to the train station to return the car and found out the Avis shop was closed. Honestly, everything closes on Sunday but we thought this would probably be open since people use the trains on the weekends. Not so much! As we were leaving, I called Avis’ airport location to see if they were open. No one answered but we assumed they HAD to be open since it was an airport. I set my phone on the dash and off we went.

We got to the airport and returned the car with no problems. Hooray! We then caught a bus back to our place. As we were on the bus, I realized that my phone was in the rental car, on the dash. Sweet! No worries, though…when we got home I’d just drive my car up to the airport and recover the phone. Slight delay in plans, but nothing to get worked up about.

We get home and I go to the garage to get my car and drive back to the airport. We jump in our car and it is totally dead. WHAT??? Long story short, the car is a diesel and it’s really not smart to leave it sit for 16 days in the cold without being driven. Yikes! So, we have to look through emails, find our friends’ numbers and try calling them with Ag's phone to see if someone could first take us to the airport and then stop at a gas station to get cable cords and jump us.

Thank God my buddy Robert McEwan was home. McEwan comes over and takes us to the airport to get my phone. They had it! Then we stopped at the gas station and got cables. Also, please note, on Sundays the gas station always has a van parked outside selling rotisserie style chickens. Hundreds of them! Ag asked Robert if she could buy him one for helping us! Ha, ha! Robert kindly declined.

We get back to our car, roll it out of the garage, jump it, viola (or, “waah-laa!" to the lay person). We wanted to keep it running for a bit (to charge up the battery) so we drove out to Sally and Jake's to see them and Seb for a bit. We drove back home from there (about an hour round trip) and the car ran fine and smooth the whole time. I thought we were in business and the battery was all charged back up again. When we got back, it was close to 8pm. Still enough time to get unpacked and in bed at a decent hour.

When home I bought a new iPod shuffle to run with (the new ones are a really cool little “clip” design). I wanted to get my new iPod uploaded so I plugged it into my USB outlet on the computer. All of the sudden, the whole computer made a “ZIP!” noise and just went black. WHAT THE…!? It was dead! Wouldn’t start, nothing. I let it sit for awhile, thinking about all the stuff I’d lose (Skype, pictures, music, etc.) and then took the battery out and blew on it a little bit. Put the battery in and to my amazement it booted up. Whew! It took a bit of time to get up and running correctly again, but basically, I soon came to realize that the iPod blew out all my USB ports....no more wireless mouse, no more uploading pics, no more printer....crazy! (Note to Kris and Matt…any suggestions on how to remedy this??)

As I am brewing over this, I decided to get some fresh air and go and start the car again, just to be sure it's okay. Of course, it's dead again. AHAHAHA! By this point, it's going on 11pm and I am just frustrated. Finally we got to bed around midnight and then all I could do was just lay there and be pissed at all the crap that happened. Then I started to think about all the work that lay ahead of me during the upcoming weeks. My mood worsened!

So, this past week, we got a new battery in the car and the USB outlets on the computer still don't work (we think we are going to have to get a new computer… I THINK I still have the 2 year contract on the current one, but it is, conveniently enough, at home. Or we’ll have to figure a way to get Ag’s up and running and transfer all our pictures to it). We have been running around like crazy catching up on work, babysitting, cleaning, etc.

Last night we went to Amsterdam for a 1/2 marathon (the race was actually in Egmund Aan Zee, about 30 minutes NW of Amsterdam) on Sunday. Ag decided to sit this one out. I ran with Jacob Cooper, and it was an extremely awesome run! It started in Egmund, a small, beautiful, typically Dutch village. The course then wound down to the shore of the North Sea and continued on the sand (deep and dry) for about 5 miles (tough!!), then proceeded to roll through the nearby sand dunes (lots of hills) and finally ended up back in Egmund. For all the obstacles, the scenery and fans (the whole town came out to cheer) made it SO worthwhile and Jacob and I ran a 1:39:04, which we were happy with. (As a funny side note: When we finally arrived in Egmund from Jacob’s house in Amsterdam, I realized that I had left my race number and timing chip back at the apartment. STUPID!! That’s like going to the airport and forgetting your luggage…you kind of need that stuff! But we pleaded our case with the race police and they let me run anyways.)

So, we are back in Lux and just watched the Bears beat the Seahawks in the playoffs. We will be posting many blogs over the next few weeks, including: Ag's adventures when her dad and sister (Theresa) came to Lux, our Christmas visit at home (including our trips to Chicago and Seattle), and more.

Also, as most of you know, Aggie and I got engaged over the break and we are very excited we got to share this joy with so many of you when we were home. Plans are still in the works but for now we know it will be this fall and in Ohio.

Au reviour!

PS. Please also keep Agnes' family in your thoughts and prayers. Her grandmother passed away this past week. She was a very strong woman and held on longer than anyone expected. We were so lucky that we got to visit with her prior to coming back to Luxembourg. She will be missed dearly.