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Grimas

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Everything posted by Grimas

  1. Moved from Houston to Kuala Lumpur with all furniture in tow and was easily able to find a place larger than we left for less than what I was paying for in Houston and the company paid most of that... Then moved to Oslo where finding something more than 2000 sq feet was a challenge and had to pay quite a bit out of pocket. 2000 sq. ft for a nice house in suburbs of Copenhagen was easily $4500/month. Very difficult to live in Scandinavia without work sponsoring it (and expensive as hell without the tax breaks and subsidies work provided...) Lived in Perth, Bangkok, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona as well but as shorter assignments (furnished housing). Living in Asia, no need for a kitchen as its too cheap to just eat out. In Norway, DK, Australia, you better have a kitchen as its too expensive to go out to eat often... Wife and I plan to eventually down scale house in the US and then rent a place overseas for 6 months at a time once kids are gone. 1000-1500/ month for a 2 bedroom flat in Southern Europe or Asia is easy but not so much in Northern Europe or the larger cities. 6 months is ideal as you don't usually have to deal with visa issues. (I also have a EU passport so the EU is an easy option) Top of our list is Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Spain, Italy, Croatia and multiple locations in Central America.
  2. What's the reason for the move and who is paying? (10 years and 5 countries as an expat but had a company paying and sponsoring the paperwork...) I've only seen one episode of the show but going as a retiree is a totally different experience than going and hoping to get a job as a local... (Our plan is to live overseas part time once the kids go to college/I retire...)
  3. I wish... My golden goes from pool to then roll in the flower beds...
  4. Next episode is on...
  5. They make wireless ones that send an alert to your phone... It would suck to be out for the night and get the alert...
  6. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JOK11K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Put one of these in the pan under the water heater and under your sinks... Dripping/leaking water will set off the alarm...
  7. I do it now (and put the hot water heaters on "vacation" settings) whenever I am gone for more than a weekend... I also have alarms at each of my hot water heaters and sinks that will go off if any water leaks while I'm at home - just replaced my hardwoods downstairs and don't want to replace them even if I have insurance...
  8. Agreed other than the smell of the leather tanning pits... The Roman ruins at Volubilis west of there are pretty cool as well.
  9. We stayed at this place outside of town : Sirayane Boutique Hotel https://www.sirayane.com/en/ a few years ago with the kids and we loved it. It wasn't in town but they had a shuttle when you wanted to go in to the Medina and het hassled to buy crap... Took the train to Casablanca to visit friends living there after a few days in Marrakech which was pretty cool as well...
  10. Depends on your policy - neighbors down the street had pipes bust in the freeze and were out of town. Whole downstairs wiped out and everything was stripped down to the slab and studs including all the custom cabinets. They have been in an apartment (3 kids, 2 dogs) since then because they had issues with insurance getting settled. Finally moved in to a larger home last month and hope to get all work completed and move back in by end of September. He told me he's at least $30k out of pocket to date but I don't know if that's related to covering costs until insurance finally settled with or if he's SOL... It sucks but good luck! (And for those of you who this hasn't happened to, check your policy - I purposely got a policy to cover for this (thanks C-man!) as I didn't want to come home from a long trip only to find a hot water heater busted on the day I left and was in the same situation...)
  11. A few years ago I boarded my first BA international flight and when I boarded, I remember thinking "Wow- this seat/bed is huge and I'm going to fly BU business from now on!" (I had just moved back from Asia and the business class seats and flights I was used to out there blew away anything LH, KLM or United offered in comparison.) At bedtime, the waitress - er stewardess - offered me pajama's and actually up made my lie-flat seat with sheets and a comforter. Damn - this was going to be my new go-to airline! Well, it turns out that I had actually gotten bumped to first class as my selected business seat had an issue with the A/V system... (Not sure why I got the upgrade as this was my first BA flight and I'm sure there were others in business who had status higher than mine at the time...) MANY BA flights later and I've never been upgraded since... The business class seats are ok but I'm an inch taller than the bed then it's flat so that always sucks. Luckily, the seats on AA for the same route on the 787 have slightly longer beds so I tend to take AA instead as the schedule/route is better than BA's...
  12. 3.5' - 5' - 3.5'. Can string volleyball net across the deeper middle section so adults can stand by the net and kids can stand on the shallower sides. Run fountains at night to drop the temp.
  13. I asked a Cuban at the office for his thoughts and he said what's surprising to him is that protests also happening in small towns where everyone knows each other so everyone knows who is out protesting (including the secret police). No anonymity that you might get in the larger cities...
  14. Looking at what was the route on that map (and avoiding tolls), go a bit further north. Take 90 to 1960 to get on 59 at Humble. Head north past the 99 tollway to 242 (Patton Village) and head west to 1488 (just north of the Woodlands). Take this west thru Magnolia and then to Hempstead where you can get on 290. Mix of 2 and 4 lane roads but not many lights and speed limits are at least 60 mph or more most of the way. That I-10 stretch of construction from Katy to Sealy can be brutal especially during late afternoons... Do not use 1960 between 59 and 290 as the amount of stoplights is brutal... (I read the original post backwards so the directions above are from east to west)
  15. Wait, wut? There was actual gin in those houses??? I've gotten dozens over the years and have always always just gone "yea, neat. Whatever..." when I've gotten one... I've probably got 3 sitting in my office drawers right now...
  16. I read somewhere that the flies are so bad this year because a lot of bats died in the freeze. Sounds logical but who knows...
  17. I've done the same seating config with my family. If I was in the same situation and she hadn't asked the waitress, er, flight attendant to get involved, I probably would have gotten up on my own and moved to an open pair of seats further back for the space. But because she made a stink about it, I would have stayed put just to be an ass back to her...
  18. Wife has a friend from high school that lived on the 8th floor and is missing. We were in Miami earlier this week and were supposed to meet up with him but couldn't coordinate a meet and now wife is taking it hard we didn't meet up while we were there...
  19. I signed up for the Clear trial before my current trip but the lines leaving Houston were nil so I didn’t really see any advantage over my TSA precheck other than my wife had to use the regular line while the kids were covered with my TSA precheck. Headed home right now and there was no Clear lane in their American terminal in Miami so got no advantage on the return trip. I will be canceling my Clear trial before it expires and just stick with my GE...
  20. Texas residents say the temperatures on their smart thermostats were RAISED overnight without their permission after state's power operators warned of shortages amid a heat wave https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9703747/Texas-residents-say-temperature-smart-thermostats-raised-remotely.html
  21. Headed out tomorrow... Can’t wait to shut work off for 2 weeks and luckily the Horns are on the way to Omaha so I have another excuse to go to a sports bar this weekend...
  22. I meant to say it can be cold in December and to be prepared. The first week were there that trip, it was highs in the 50's but a front hit the second week and the highs were in the low 30's the second week.
  23. Just remember it's frigging cold in December/January in Northern Italy... We were living in Norway the first time we visited for Christmas and left all out heavy cold weather gear at home thinking (yea, my bad) that Italy would be warmer... Wife and kids got new Italian designer winter coats because I was stupid...
  24. all GE got extended last year I think until December...
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