For those of you who enjoy stories about Mims the wondercat....we have found her weakness. She is truly and deathly terrified of Sponge Bob Squarepants.
She has not had problems with balloons in the past, but when KB took down my great end of the year gift (Sponge Bob Squarepants helium balloon) to show her, she acted like the world was going to explode. I have never, never seen her run around in cirlces like such a maniac, screaming like the sky was falling! She totally did the cartoon run of her feet going faster than her little legs would carry her, barrelled through her food and water bowl scattering it everywhere and jumped around on every piece of furniture in the house. Even after KB had safely tied the balloon back in its place, she just sat frozen under the table, screaming at the balloon. Then she went into hiding and even the next morning we still could not find her. Finally, we put the thing in the room upstairs. Mims slowly came out, looking all over for her nemesis, and for the first time in her life even went out into the hallway when we opened the door for her, looking for Spongy (the hallway is usually what brings out these death screams from her). After we left, she spent the remaining day behind the washing machine, even though the balloon was nowhere in sight.
So the point of the story....Mims the wondercat has discovered her arch enemy....Sponge Bob Squarepants.....
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Only in LV...
Perhaps 95% of my posts could start with that title, but here's a fun story for you...
On Tuesday, I was trying to make a phone call to a government office. (That sentence in and of itself should let you know that you are in for a good story!) About two months ago, I had called the office from which I had received my permanent residence visa, asking how I will go about getting a new visa in my new passport once I have changed my last name. That was a fun phone call too - the one where I had first called and no one answered so I called back about half an hour later to the lady picking up the phone and screaming "We are on our lunchbreak right now!!!" and I timidly answered, "Ok.....I just have a quick question - when would be a good time to call back?" and she screamed back "well, if I've picked up the phone and you must ask your question then ask it!!!" The weirdo answer I got at the time is that I need to go get the new visa from the same office where I have declared my official address. (This is something everyone in Latvia must do and keep up on every time you move so you pay your taxes to the correct districts.) Anyway, this sounded fishy to me, but I stopped in at that office a few weeks later to declare my official address (oops, I had been living at the new address for over a year and only just got around to it) and they looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked if this would be the place to come get my new visa.
So Tuesday, I thought I'd try to call back and hope to get the nice lady to pick up the phone this time (there are two who work in this office - the good witch and the bad witch - and everyone who has ever had to deal with this office knows what I am talking about). So I really tried to plan my times accordingly for the phone call, took a deep breath and went for it. No answer. Ok, I gave it the same half hour that I did last time and then tried again. Busy signal. And for the rest of the afternoon whenever I called, busy signal. But the crazy thing that started happening, is that I started getting many a phone call from random numbers, of people thinking that they were calling this same office that I was trying to call! Obviously, I figured that in some twilight zone way, their calls were now getting forwarded to my phone. But this being Latvia, I really didn't know what to do about it, so I just sort of dealt with it for the afternoon, hoping someone would catch on and the problem would just go away.
No such luck - next morning, I am still getting these phone calls. (Honestly, were I not such a straight person, I could've had quite a bit of fun with this. Mostly, these were Russian speaking people, looking to renew their permanent residency visas - that means people who have lived here at least five year (probably longer for most) and have still not bothered to learn the language - MAJOR peeve.... One lady really did panic when she called and asked if she could speak in Russian and I said no, only Latvian. I could've stirred up some great trouble that day....but I diverge....)
So what to do... I begin by calling my own mobile phone company. I explain the situation and there is an uncomfortably long silence on the end of the line. Finally the "customer service rep" (I use that term loosely) just tells me, no that's not possible and it's not happening. Um....ok. So it takes five more explanations until she gets what I am saying and is starting to believe me, but of course, this has nothing to do with her. I must try to call the local company for landlines.
Call the company for landlines, and the woman almost immediately hangs up when I tell her my story because I'm calling about my mobile phone and they don't do mobile phones. I kept her on the line long enough to tell her the story once more so she gets how it has to do with her, then she tells me the same thing, that it's not possible. When I explain to her that it is possible and it is happening, she tells me that it must be my fault, I have done something to forward these calls to myself and there is nothing they can do about it. (How much fun would that be, if I could forward the calls of any government office to my own mobile phone?) No, I told her, that doesn't make any sense. So she tries to locate the landline phone number and tells me such a number does not exist so it can't be happening. Again, I must explain that it IS happening. Then she told me that I must work in that office and so I should want these calls to be coming to me. Um.....ok. No. Finally, she put me on hold. She came back and said she found that this phone number does exist and is being forwarded to me and will try to contact someone to see if they can fix it.
This did not leave me with a great deal of confidence that the problem would be solved. We were calling around trying to find the address for this office (as the office has moved location since we had been there) and were getting ready to go in to the office ourselves to see if we could fix it (because of course we can't call them since I keep getting the busy signal and the calls are coming back to my phone!) Did I mention this was already a cuckoo day as we were driving around like madmen, running wedding errands - to the seamstress for final dress fittings and hurrying to meet they people who will be marrying us at Jaunvitagas? So, we're getting ready to go to the office in person, hoping and praying for the good witch, when I realize, I haven't had a random phone call in about 15 minutes. I tell KB to try to call the office, and by miracle, he gets through to them!
It was the good witch on the phone. KB explained everything, but of course she says (in some form of apology), it was not her fault or her colleague's fault, it must've been the phone's fault or the phone company's fault... And that is the story in Latvia - blame anyone, so long as it's not me....
And then the good witch politely explained, that I do indeed need to get my new visa from the office where I declared my official address. I'm just gonna leave that one for after the wedding....
On Tuesday, I was trying to make a phone call to a government office. (That sentence in and of itself should let you know that you are in for a good story!) About two months ago, I had called the office from which I had received my permanent residence visa, asking how I will go about getting a new visa in my new passport once I have changed my last name. That was a fun phone call too - the one where I had first called and no one answered so I called back about half an hour later to the lady picking up the phone and screaming "We are on our lunchbreak right now!!!" and I timidly answered, "Ok.....I just have a quick question - when would be a good time to call back?" and she screamed back "well, if I've picked up the phone and you must ask your question then ask it!!!" The weirdo answer I got at the time is that I need to go get the new visa from the same office where I have declared my official address. (This is something everyone in Latvia must do and keep up on every time you move so you pay your taxes to the correct districts.) Anyway, this sounded fishy to me, but I stopped in at that office a few weeks later to declare my official address (oops, I had been living at the new address for over a year and only just got around to it) and they looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked if this would be the place to come get my new visa.
So Tuesday, I thought I'd try to call back and hope to get the nice lady to pick up the phone this time (there are two who work in this office - the good witch and the bad witch - and everyone who has ever had to deal with this office knows what I am talking about). So I really tried to plan my times accordingly for the phone call, took a deep breath and went for it. No answer. Ok, I gave it the same half hour that I did last time and then tried again. Busy signal. And for the rest of the afternoon whenever I called, busy signal. But the crazy thing that started happening, is that I started getting many a phone call from random numbers, of people thinking that they were calling this same office that I was trying to call! Obviously, I figured that in some twilight zone way, their calls were now getting forwarded to my phone. But this being Latvia, I really didn't know what to do about it, so I just sort of dealt with it for the afternoon, hoping someone would catch on and the problem would just go away.
No such luck - next morning, I am still getting these phone calls. (Honestly, were I not such a straight person, I could've had quite a bit of fun with this. Mostly, these were Russian speaking people, looking to renew their permanent residency visas - that means people who have lived here at least five year (probably longer for most) and have still not bothered to learn the language - MAJOR peeve.... One lady really did panic when she called and asked if she could speak in Russian and I said no, only Latvian. I could've stirred up some great trouble that day....but I diverge....)
So what to do... I begin by calling my own mobile phone company. I explain the situation and there is an uncomfortably long silence on the end of the line. Finally the "customer service rep" (I use that term loosely) just tells me, no that's not possible and it's not happening. Um....ok. So it takes five more explanations until she gets what I am saying and is starting to believe me, but of course, this has nothing to do with her. I must try to call the local company for landlines.
Call the company for landlines, and the woman almost immediately hangs up when I tell her my story because I'm calling about my mobile phone and they don't do mobile phones. I kept her on the line long enough to tell her the story once more so she gets how it has to do with her, then she tells me the same thing, that it's not possible. When I explain to her that it is possible and it is happening, she tells me that it must be my fault, I have done something to forward these calls to myself and there is nothing they can do about it. (How much fun would that be, if I could forward the calls of any government office to my own mobile phone?) No, I told her, that doesn't make any sense. So she tries to locate the landline phone number and tells me such a number does not exist so it can't be happening. Again, I must explain that it IS happening. Then she told me that I must work in that office and so I should want these calls to be coming to me. Um.....ok. No. Finally, she put me on hold. She came back and said she found that this phone number does exist and is being forwarded to me and will try to contact someone to see if they can fix it.
This did not leave me with a great deal of confidence that the problem would be solved. We were calling around trying to find the address for this office (as the office has moved location since we had been there) and were getting ready to go in to the office ourselves to see if we could fix it (because of course we can't call them since I keep getting the busy signal and the calls are coming back to my phone!) Did I mention this was already a cuckoo day as we were driving around like madmen, running wedding errands - to the seamstress for final dress fittings and hurrying to meet they people who will be marrying us at Jaunvitagas? So, we're getting ready to go to the office in person, hoping and praying for the good witch, when I realize, I haven't had a random phone call in about 15 minutes. I tell KB to try to call the office, and by miracle, he gets through to them!
It was the good witch on the phone. KB explained everything, but of course she says (in some form of apology), it was not her fault or her colleague's fault, it must've been the phone's fault or the phone company's fault... And that is the story in Latvia - blame anyone, so long as it's not me....
And then the good witch politely explained, that I do indeed need to get my new visa from the office where I declared my official address. I'm just gonna leave that one for after the wedding....
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Mimuliene
Such a funny, funny cat. The other night we had just gotten home with a friend and she was running around in circles screaming at us, but no one was paying any attention to her. So she walks over to the happy light and turns it on so that the room floods with bright "sun"light, and looks up at us - "now will you please listen to me??" What a character.....
In other news, the real title of this post should be "CRUNCH TIME". However, I'm not really sure what to write about that. School is officially done and I'm signed out for the summer (though this will definitely be a working summer for me as I prepare to teach grade two). (By the way as a side note, my top two favorite end of the year gifts from students this year: 1. a Sponge Bob Sqaurepants balloon picked out especially for Ms. Diana, 2. a giftcard to a spa where I will definitely be getting a massage this week :) !) Anyway, in my mind I had justified everything by thinking that now we would have two weeks to focus solely on preparing for the wedding and everything would get done, though somehow it became painfully obvious to me just yesterday, that we only have one week. Jani is next weekend and then guests already start arriving on Tuesday! It is all wonderful and exciting - and coming up very very fast!!!
In other news, the real title of this post should be "CRUNCH TIME". However, I'm not really sure what to write about that. School is officially done and I'm signed out for the summer (though this will definitely be a working summer for me as I prepare to teach grade two). (By the way as a side note, my top two favorite end of the year gifts from students this year: 1. a Sponge Bob Sqaurepants balloon picked out especially for Ms. Diana, 2. a giftcard to a spa where I will definitely be getting a massage this week :) !) Anyway, in my mind I had justified everything by thinking that now we would have two weeks to focus solely on preparing for the wedding and everything would get done, though somehow it became painfully obvious to me just yesterday, that we only have one week. Jani is next weekend and then guests already start arriving on Tuesday! It is all wonderful and exciting - and coming up very very fast!!!
Monday, June 9, 2008
A seriously needed weekend away :)
I think that any couple who is planning a wedding - big or small, summer or winter, fancy or out-in-the-country - reaches a point of saying, let's just elope. For many a reason, we were very much there. Thanks to our very thoughtful and caring friends, who decided to give us a pre-wedding present, we took a pre-honeymoon. A weekend away, just to have fun, to think and talk about nothing serious, and try to remember why we are doing all of this anyway. ;)
That weekend was strategically planned for this weekend - the 28th is still far enough away that we can start cracking down and really get stuff done now, but not far enough away so that we can still hang on to the great memories from this weekend if the going gets tough again. And mother nature certainly sent her wishes of support this weekend as well, as the weather was absolutely perfect (as KB calls it "zero weather").
We actually started out with a picnic on the beach on Friday night. No photos of this, but KB picked me up straight away after school and off we went. Then on Saturday morning we "slept in" (yes, 7.30am is sleeping in for us when it is already light as day at 3.30am and regular wake up time is 5.30am) and got a nice start before 10am.
Our first stop was "Lacu maizinca", arguably the very best bread bakers in Latvia. We had breakfast/lunch there and then stocked up on fresh bread and "grauzdini" (rye bread sticks fried in oil and coated with fresh garlic) for the trip. Yum....happy tummies make happy campers, so this was definitely a great start. Here is where we ate out on the terrace and me eating "rupmaizes zupa", a sweet rye bread "soup". Not bad, but I still prefer rupmaizes ice cream. :)
Next stop was Kuldiga. We stopped for beers at a beer garden just beside Ventas Rumba - the widest waterfall in Latvia. We took a venture out on the waterfall and just sat in the sun and chatted for a while. (Unfortunately, there are no pictures of us together from this weekend.) It was wonderful and refreshing.
Then we headed to the Sauleskalni Bed and Breakfast just outside of Kuldiga. We had found this place on the internet and it looked like just what we were looking for. A guest house with its own dendrological park and pond for fishing. So that is what we did - we walked around and sat out in the beautiful garden...
I decided that my luck with fishing was going to be the following morning, but KB wanted try it out the first day already. So he fished and I set up camp just next to him reading in the sun....
And this shot is just for AW - snacking on two different types of grauzdini....love you! I think I ate enough for you too! My stomach was not so happy at the end of the weekend....
We also got ourselves a portable grill! Even though it is not a Weber, as we wanted for sentimental reasons (those suckers are too ridiculously expensive here!), we will still call it Webbie the grill. We cooked up "sasliki" (LV kebabs) and they were so delicious. By the way, this photo is taken around 10pm....
Up at 5am the next day for fishing! My feeling was right - KB hadn't even thrown his line in and I already had caught my first fish!! I will attribute it to the fact that I had remembered the Sesame Street episode where Ernie and Bert called out "Here, fishy, fishy, fishy!" Well, anyway, it did work for me! Don't worry, Krix, the bait of choice was corn from a can. Here is the proud fisherwoman! We were 3 and 3 for that morning; unfortunately, none big enough to keep (though this is truly the biggest fish I've ever caught). At least we are back in the game again!
Around 8am we went in for our breakfast. I realized how truly addicted I have become to coffee on this morning, because my day did not really start until that first cup, even with all the fish excitement. We checked out and decided to take a leisurely drive back to Riga, checking out different places along the way. This was a fun place that we discovered called Mara kambari (Mara's chambers). It's a place to hike out a few kilometers to see these ancient cult caves. The walk out was absolutely beautiful.
Please do not let me lead anymore hikes. As we know that I got lost on the mountains of Austria with two friends in high schol while the rest of the group managed to follow the simple path up.....so I got us lost on the way back from the caves. I do not know how we could've missed the main path, but somehow we ended up on a crazy, clearly very old, nearly non-existant path back. Of course, being in Latvia, we were never sure if we had actually missed the path or if this just really was the path, but we kept thinking it would get better in a moment. The two pictures below are at just a few of the wackier moments on the path (that is - when we were able to see each other enough to take the photos, because most of it was just fighting through trees and thick brush) - here we are "hopping" over fallen logs and scaling down fallen trees to get over ravines. :)
After about fifteen minutes of blind wandering, we finally stumbled upon a pretty nice boardwalk (we entered in the middle of the boardwalk) and had a pretty good laugh about our hike through "erce express" (tick express). I picked one off my arm, we gave ourselves a good shakedown to get rid of the rest, and continued on our way. Beautiful......the Abava River.
And finally, we drove a bit further and ended up on the beach. While we have appreciated the convenience of being able to take the train to the beach the last few summers, so also does half of Riga's population. It is a much different experience to have you own car and find a beach with a bit of breathing room. We laid out, read and slept (and ate more grauzdini) for a couple of hours. Let me reiterate how absolutely ideal the weather was....
In the second photo of me, if you look very very closely, you can see 16 swans gracefully swimming by - going on vacation in the ocean. We took that as a good sign to the end of a great weekend. Also, KB ended up looking like the flag of Latvia, so it was a very good idea that we headed back to Riga before the rush of traffic, just to hang out at home. (For those of you wondering....Latvia's flag is maroon, small strip of white and maroon, so you can imagine how a guy at the beach could end up looking like that.....) :)
That weekend was strategically planned for this weekend - the 28th is still far enough away that we can start cracking down and really get stuff done now, but not far enough away so that we can still hang on to the great memories from this weekend if the going gets tough again. And mother nature certainly sent her wishes of support this weekend as well, as the weather was absolutely perfect (as KB calls it "zero weather").
We actually started out with a picnic on the beach on Friday night. No photos of this, but KB picked me up straight away after school and off we went. Then on Saturday morning we "slept in" (yes, 7.30am is sleeping in for us when it is already light as day at 3.30am and regular wake up time is 5.30am) and got a nice start before 10am.
Our first stop was "Lacu maizinca", arguably the very best bread bakers in Latvia. We had breakfast/lunch there and then stocked up on fresh bread and "grauzdini" (rye bread sticks fried in oil and coated with fresh garlic) for the trip. Yum....happy tummies make happy campers, so this was definitely a great start. Here is where we ate out on the terrace and me eating "rupmaizes zupa", a sweet rye bread "soup". Not bad, but I still prefer rupmaizes ice cream. :)
Next stop was Kuldiga. We stopped for beers at a beer garden just beside Ventas Rumba - the widest waterfall in Latvia. We took a venture out on the waterfall and just sat in the sun and chatted for a while. (Unfortunately, there are no pictures of us together from this weekend.) It was wonderful and refreshing.
Then we headed to the Sauleskalni Bed and Breakfast just outside of Kuldiga. We had found this place on the internet and it looked like just what we were looking for. A guest house with its own dendrological park and pond for fishing. So that is what we did - we walked around and sat out in the beautiful garden...
I decided that my luck with fishing was going to be the following morning, but KB wanted try it out the first day already. So he fished and I set up camp just next to him reading in the sun....
And this shot is just for AW - snacking on two different types of grauzdini....love you! I think I ate enough for you too! My stomach was not so happy at the end of the weekend....
We also got ourselves a portable grill! Even though it is not a Weber, as we wanted for sentimental reasons (those suckers are too ridiculously expensive here!), we will still call it Webbie the grill. We cooked up "sasliki" (LV kebabs) and they were so delicious. By the way, this photo is taken around 10pm....
Up at 5am the next day for fishing! My feeling was right - KB hadn't even thrown his line in and I already had caught my first fish!! I will attribute it to the fact that I had remembered the Sesame Street episode where Ernie and Bert called out "Here, fishy, fishy, fishy!" Well, anyway, it did work for me! Don't worry, Krix, the bait of choice was corn from a can. Here is the proud fisherwoman! We were 3 and 3 for that morning; unfortunately, none big enough to keep (though this is truly the biggest fish I've ever caught). At least we are back in the game again!
Around 8am we went in for our breakfast. I realized how truly addicted I have become to coffee on this morning, because my day did not really start until that first cup, even with all the fish excitement. We checked out and decided to take a leisurely drive back to Riga, checking out different places along the way. This was a fun place that we discovered called Mara kambari (Mara's chambers). It's a place to hike out a few kilometers to see these ancient cult caves. The walk out was absolutely beautiful.
Please do not let me lead anymore hikes. As we know that I got lost on the mountains of Austria with two friends in high schol while the rest of the group managed to follow the simple path up.....so I got us lost on the way back from the caves. I do not know how we could've missed the main path, but somehow we ended up on a crazy, clearly very old, nearly non-existant path back. Of course, being in Latvia, we were never sure if we had actually missed the path or if this just really was the path, but we kept thinking it would get better in a moment. The two pictures below are at just a few of the wackier moments on the path (that is - when we were able to see each other enough to take the photos, because most of it was just fighting through trees and thick brush) - here we are "hopping" over fallen logs and scaling down fallen trees to get over ravines. :) 
After about fifteen minutes of blind wandering, we finally stumbled upon a pretty nice boardwalk (we entered in the middle of the boardwalk) and had a pretty good laugh about our hike through "erce express" (tick express). I picked one off my arm, we gave ourselves a good shakedown to get rid of the rest, and continued on our way. Beautiful......the Abava River.
And finally, we drove a bit further and ended up on the beach. While we have appreciated the convenience of being able to take the train to the beach the last few summers, so also does half of Riga's population. It is a much different experience to have you own car and find a beach with a bit of breathing room. We laid out, read and slept (and ate more grauzdini) for a couple of hours. Let me reiterate how absolutely ideal the weather was....
In the second photo of me, if you look very very closely, you can see 16 swans gracefully swimming by - going on vacation in the ocean. We took that as a good sign to the end of a great weekend. Also, KB ended up looking like the flag of Latvia, so it was a very good idea that we headed back to Riga before the rush of traffic, just to hang out at home. (For those of you wondering....Latvia's flag is maroon, small strip of white and maroon, so you can imagine how a guy at the beach could end up looking like that.....) :)
Monday, June 2, 2008
I told you so...
I hate to say it but I really wanna say it to some of the people who are going to make our wedding happen....I told you so! Of all the people who said we could just wait on it and there is no rush to take care of things in the spring when the wedding is not until the summer - they are all realizing now that summer is their busy season and they are running out of time! Ha!
Again, may I say how lucky they are that I have become a much more laid back person than I once was... :)
On that note, two bits of good news. (See, finally, as it is now the month of June, people are willing to work with us, so lots got done on this magical day of June 2.)
One, KB finally FINALLY met with the woman about our reception. This was just getting us more and more frazzled this weekend, as KB tried to stop in on Saturday to talk to her, but a tour bus of people had just arrived so he decided that wasn't the best time. On Sunday, we stopped in at what we thought was early on Sunday morning, but the one server was in-over-her-head busy and the woman who we needed to meet with would be "in shortly." We left our phone numbers for her to call us when we could come in and meet any time during that day. KB then proceeded to call her three times during the day and no answer. She finally calls us at 10pm as we are driving back into Riga. I quick made an appointment for KB with her this morning - and it worked!!!! So the good news is that the reception is happening! Also, they did not try to do some kind of a crazy price increase on us as happened to our friends I & PP - who were quoted 4 Ls a piece on chair cover rentals and then just before the wedding they tried to say 20 Ls a piece!
The second bit of very good news is that I will not be needing to wear a potato sack to this wedding. As I had not yet tried on the dress, I was really beginning to have anxiety at random points during my days as to how I would end up looking. Anxiety to the point of calling KB just to ask "Will you still marry me if I'm ugly that day?" His best answer was "Yes, pelite, I would marry you if you were wearing a potato sack that day." The potato sack was really starting to become an option in my mind. However, since today's dress fitting, I am happy to announce that I will not be wearing a potato sack and I might even look pretty damn good that day.
T minus 26 days.....the planning finally begins! :)
Again, may I say how lucky they are that I have become a much more laid back person than I once was... :)
On that note, two bits of good news. (See, finally, as it is now the month of June, people are willing to work with us, so lots got done on this magical day of June 2.)
One, KB finally FINALLY met with the woman about our reception. This was just getting us more and more frazzled this weekend, as KB tried to stop in on Saturday to talk to her, but a tour bus of people had just arrived so he decided that wasn't the best time. On Sunday, we stopped in at what we thought was early on Sunday morning, but the one server was in-over-her-head busy and the woman who we needed to meet with would be "in shortly." We left our phone numbers for her to call us when we could come in and meet any time during that day. KB then proceeded to call her three times during the day and no answer. She finally calls us at 10pm as we are driving back into Riga. I quick made an appointment for KB with her this morning - and it worked!!!! So the good news is that the reception is happening! Also, they did not try to do some kind of a crazy price increase on us as happened to our friends I & PP - who were quoted 4 Ls a piece on chair cover rentals and then just before the wedding they tried to say 20 Ls a piece!
The second bit of very good news is that I will not be needing to wear a potato sack to this wedding. As I had not yet tried on the dress, I was really beginning to have anxiety at random points during my days as to how I would end up looking. Anxiety to the point of calling KB just to ask "Will you still marry me if I'm ugly that day?" His best answer was "Yes, pelite, I would marry you if you were wearing a potato sack that day." The potato sack was really starting to become an option in my mind. However, since today's dress fitting, I am happy to announce that I will not be wearing a potato sack and I might even look pretty damn good that day.
T minus 26 days.....the planning finally begins! :)
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