First post of 2007

Let me get everyone up to speed first:

-We finished the work on the inside of the house. Kitchen tiles are up, new appliances are in. Both bedrooms fixed. Spiral staircase installed. We're still polishing up a few things, but the major, back-breaking work is pretty much done. As always, the most up-to-date pictures are here. Thenext venture, which we are going to abandon until the spring is the outside of the house.

-That said, we've been having some MAJOR problems with our sewer plumbing. Luckily, nothing gross has ever spewed into any room in our house. Our drains were blocked though, and had to be completely replaced, from the city main to our house. This meant digging up the street and our yard, which of course meant $$$. After some Poirot-like, moustache-curling investigating, we'll most likely be taking the previous owner to court over this.

-Just about the same time that our plumbing problems showed up, we got involved in a car accident. Thankfully no-one was hurt, but Ewa's car has been in the shop for over a month now, hopefully we’ll be picking it up tonight. Some uninsured douchebag was behind the wheel of the other car, but at least he had the integrity to stick around and take the rap for his mistake. I’d hate to have to foot an $8000 repair bill… Sorry man.

Now to the meat of this post: We spent the X-mas/New Year’s holiday in Poland and Italy, and had an awesome time. Warsaw in the winter is pretty depressing, but I can’t think of many cities that aren’t around that time of year. A blanket of snow would have done a lot to change my thoughts on that, but Europe has been relatively snowless this year. Ewa’s father threw a couple exciting parties, and I drank altogether way too much homemade booze. We did however also manage to stay sober long enough to iron out some wedding details, which helped alleviate a few of Ewa’s concerns.

The trip to Italy was also a blast. We drove there, so I got to scratch another country off the list: the Czech Republic. Unfortunately my experience in CZ was similar to that of many midwest states, consisting of ordering a coffee at a gas station (they did stamp my passport at the border though!). I was a little disappointed with the snow conditions in the Dolomites, in that there was barely any. Almost everything was man-made snow. The lifts were much nicer than anything in the states though, which is good, since every run is about 3 times longer there. The hotel was amazing, with 6-course dinners every night and a great spa (sauna, steam room, indoor/outdoor swimming pool, etc.) downstairs.

I had a good time spending some time with this side of Ewa's family. My almost complete inability to understand anyone made it a bit boring at times. Ewa's dad and his girlfriend made an effort though, and I really appreciated it. We didn't get to take too many pictures while we were there, but as soon as we can get some from some of the other attendees, I will post them.

All this vacation at a cost to me of less than 200 euros, including the flight.

Of course, all that I need to do now is learn Polish.